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THOMAS JEFFERSON. 



THE LIFE AND TIMES OF 
THOMAS JEFFERSON 



BY 

THOMAS E. WATSON 

Author of "■The Story of France,' '■'•Napoleon " Etc. 




NEW YORK 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

MCMIII 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

TV.O Copies f^eceiveel 

OCT 17 1903 

Cepyright En^fy 
CLASS tU yXo. M«. 
t' COPY A. 






COPYIUGHT, 1903, BT 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



Published, October, 1903 



DEDICATION 

BECAUSE HE HAS CONSECRATED HIS WEALTH, TALENT, 
AND ENERGIES TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE CONDITIONS 
UNDER WHICH THE MASSES OF OUR PEOPLE LIVE; BECAUSE 
HE HAS SHOWN AN EARNEST, FEARLESS, AND CONSISTENT 
INTEREST IN THE CAUSE OF THE WEAK AND OPPRESSED ; 
BECAUSE HE IS TO-DAY WORKING WITH SPLENDID ABILITY 
ALONG THE SAME LINES WHICH MR, JEFFERSON MARKED 
OUT A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, I DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO 

WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST 



Ml 



/ 



( 



PREFACE 



By far the greater number of books treating of 
American history and biography have been written 
by Northern men. Southern men of the Old Regime 
were not much given to the writing of books, and 
when the man of New England strode forward, pen 
in hand, nominated himself custodian of our na- 
tional archives and began to compile the record, 
nobody seriously contested the oflSce, This being 
so, it happened almost inevitably that New England 
got handsome treatment in our national histories. 
Tended by the reverential hands of her own sons, 
her historical graves have been kept very green in- 
deed. The microscope, applied to every historical 
scene and character in New England, has let no 
excellence escape its magnifying power. This was 
very natural. The New England author, by the 
sheer strength of environment, education, heredity, 
inborn prejudice, and preference, saw everything 
from a New England point of view, and as it ap- 
peared to him so he colored the record. 

Nobody denies that New England deserved good 
treatment in our histories. Her record is one of 
glory, and her sons have the right to be proud of 

vii 



^IFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

it. No patriotic American would want to detract 
from her merit, even if he could. None could do so, 
even if he would. But, at the same time, the his- 
tory of New England is not the history of the whole 
Union. 

The criticism which can be leveled justly at so 
many of the alleged histories of our country is that 
they are not national. They tell, with fulness and 
power, the story of New England; but too often 
they ignore the South and the West. Very fre- 
quently they are cruelly unjust both to the South 
and the West. 

This is to be deplored. It can not be to the per- 
manent best interests of our common country that 
any section thereof should be misrepresented. All 
true patriots must realize the vital importance of 
harmonious relations between North and South, 
East and West. Any book whose tendency is to in- 
flame section against section, and to leave in the 
minds of the people a rankling sense of wrong, is a 
dangerous book. 

I can conceive of nothing more ominous of future 
trouble than the continued grow^th of purely sec- 
tional literature. As long as Northern authors 
" write at " the South, and Southern authors " write 
back at " the North, we are cultivating perilous 
conditions. Upon the fertile seed-bed of sectional 
prejudice and jealousy such books are broadcasting 
the seed of strife whose harvest will be gathered in 

viii 



PREFACE 

the years to come. Surely it is possible to tell the 
story of our Republic as we would write that of 
France or England. What American author would 
think of the sectional divisions in France, or Ger- 
many, if he were engaged in compiling the record of 
either? How absurd it would be to warp such a 
narrative to please a local prejudice! 

Yet American history suffers from precisely this 

method of treatment. Some Northern histories are 

so offensive to the South that no Southern man can 

"ead them. Some Southern books are equally 

offensive to our brethren of the North. 

In The Life and Times of Jefferson I have made 
an earnest effort to deal fairly with the man, the 
facts, the times, the different sections — his friends 
and his enemies. 

I have tried to give New England her just dues 
— which are great. And I have likewise tried to do 
justice to the South, whose fair proportion of the 
toil and the glory is too frequently denied. 

Without detracting from the one section, I have 
endeavored to exalt the other. Instead of taking 
away a single one of the treasures of our national 
history, my purpose has been to bring neglected ad- 
ditions to the casket. No accepted national hero 
has been ignored, but I have endeavored to show 
that there are others whose names deserve a greater 
prominence than they have always enjoyed. 

In other words, my effort has been to make the 

ix 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

PAGE 

Yorktown founded — Jefferson's ancestry — His youth and education 
—The Indian chief — The " old regime " in Virginia — The Vir- 
ginian gentleman of the " old school" — William and Mary Col- 
lege — Dr. Small — Governor Fauquier — Fiddling, dancing, and 
studying — Jefferson graduates and reads law — Personal appear- 
ance and habits — His friendships — Dabney Carr, the Jonathan 
of the David — A dream and what came of it . . . . 1 

CHAPTER II 

BEGINNINGS OF THE REVOLUTION 

Origins of Revolutionary War — " Protection " run mad— Current 
events — Attempt to found a republic in Louisiana — Pontiac on 
the war-path — Plays a wonderful ball-game and wins an English 
fort 27 

CHAPTER III 

STAMP ACT TIMES 

England passes the Stamp Act — North Carolina leads a revolt — 
Patrick Henry — James Otis — Henry's great speech — Jefferson 
present — Jefferson a lawyer — Those minute, voluminous diaries 
— Lawyers' fees then and now — Webster, Pinckney, Wirt, Ran- 
dolph 39 

CHAPTER IV 

IN THE LEGISLATURE 

Jefferson elected to State Legislature— Lord Botetourt the new 
governor— Jefferson gets a gentle rebuke — Patriotic resolutions 
passed — Botetourt disbands the rebels — Meeting at the tavern — 
Boycott resolutions — ^The author pays attention in a friendly 
way to William Eleroy Curtis — Jefferson and slavery — Shadwell 
burned — Monticello begun ....... 60 

xiii 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER V 

REVOLT IN NORTH CAROLINA 

PA 

The North Carolina Regulators — Battle of Great Alamance Creek — 
Woodrow Wilson's book 



CHAPTER VI 

MARRIAGE AND MONTICELLO 

Jefferson in love — Marries a handsome widow, who is supposed to 
be rich— Happy married life at Monticello— The fatal British 
debt 87 

CHAPTER VII 

THE NAVIGATION ACTS 

Rum and the slave trade — Navigation Acts enforced — The burning of 
the Gaspee — Richard Henry Lee proposes Committee of Corre- 
spondence — Dabney Carr lays corner-stone of the Republic — His 
death — Tea duties and tea ships — Charleston, Boston — Tea par- 
ties at both places — Virginia burgesses — Jefferson an extremist 
— Boston — General Congress— Burning of the Peggy Stewart 
— Dunraore's Indian War — Logan's speech .... 94 

CHAPTER VIII 

JEFFERSON AT MONTICELLO 

Jefferson at Monticello — His passion for building and improving — 
Violin practise — Old-time music and dancing — John Randolpli, 
the royalist— Parts with his celebrated violin and goes into exile 113 

CHAPTER IX 

THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 

Continental Congress— Jefferson heads Committee of Safety- 
Patrick Henry—" We must fight ! "—George Washington heads 
military — Dunmore and the powder — Henry as a rebel leader — 
North's Conciliatory Proposition — Jefferson in Congress— 
Bnnker Hill — Growth of independent spirit — Washington, Sam 
Adams, Wesley, Franklin, Richard Henry Lee— Lord Dunmore 
takes to the ships 123 

CHAPTER X 

AFFAIRS IN GEORGIA 

The Colony of Georgia— Conditions there— Indian wars— Weak, 
but did her part— Provisional Congress— Bullock made Chief 
Magistrate— Royal governor driven out— Lachlan Mcintosh- 
Joseph Habersham ......... 133 

xiv 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XI 

PATRICK HENRY IN COMMAND 

PAGE 

Patrick Henry Commander-in-chief in Virginia — Dunmore's ravages 
— Fight at Great Bridge — Falmouth and Norfolk destroyed — 
Paine's Common Sense — North Carolina leads for independ- 
ence — Virginia — Thomas Nelson, George Mason, Eichard 
Henry Lee — American triumph at Fort Sullivan — Moultrie, the 
fearless — Sergeant Jasper — Sergeant McDaniel . . . 140 

CHAPTER XII 

GEORGE WASHINGTON 

New England "histories" provincial — George Washington — Sketch 

of his career — Made General-in-chief ..... 14G 

CHAPTER XIII 

THE DECLARATION 

Congress feels popular impulse — Independence declared — Cornelius 
Harnet— Mecklenburg Resolutions — Jefferson writes the Decla- 
ration — How it was received 157 

CHAPTER XIV 

JEFFERSON IN VIRGINIA 

France stealthily offers friendship — Money given on the sly — Silas 
Deane — Beaumarchais — Jefferson as a reformer in Virginia — 
Divorces Church from State — Entails and primogeniture abol- 
ished — The old English home — The true spirit of democracy . 165 

CHAPTER XV 

RELIGION AND SLAVERY 

Religious persecution — Tithes — Barbarous law — Jefferson for tol- 
eration — for emancipation — for state education— Family matters 
— Saratoga prisoners — Fiddling and amusing themselves at Mon- 
ticello 177 

CHAPTER XVI 

GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA 

Jefferson elected Governor of Virginia — John Page — Panoramic 
view of Revolutionary War—Lexington, Concord, Bunker Hill 
— March to Canada— Long Island— Nathan Hale— White Plains 
— Lafayette — Trenton — Arnold— Paine — Washington . . 185 

XV 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

CHAPTER XVII 

PAUL JONES 

PAGE 

Paul Jones — His daring cruise — His marvelous victory over the 

Serapis 193 

CHAPTER XVIII 

WAR IN THE SOUTH 

Benedict Arnold's raid to Richmond— War in Southern States — 

Heroic leaders— Unrecorded battles and victories . . . 203 

CHAPTER XIX 
king's mountain 
The ride of the Southern Volunteers to King's Mountain — Decisive 

victory 207 

CHAPTER XX 
yorktown 

Electrical influence of King's Mountain — The Cowpens— John Eager 
Howard, Williams, Washington, Daniel Morgan — Lord Corn- 
wallis and General Greene — The great chase — The tables 
turned — Battle at Guilford Court-House— Cornwallis in Vir- 
ginia — Takes position at Yorktown — Is hemmed in — John Lau- 
rens and French aid — " The work is done " .... 212 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE SOUTH IN THE WAR 

Thomas Nelson— British debts— The Southern States during the war 
—Some comparisons— The famous proposition of Governor 
Rutledge 217 

CHAPTER XXII 

GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 

The Northvrestern border-George Rogers Clark— March to Kas- 
kaskia— Vincennes— The "Hannibal of the West "—Fort Jef- 



ferson 



223 



CHAPTER XXTII 

IN RETIREMENT 

Jefferson's troubles— Blamed for British inroads— Threat of im- 
peachment—Death of his daughter— Death of his wife— Retires 
from public life — Writes Notes on Virginia .... 

xvi 



233 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTEIi XXIV 

IN CONGRESS 

PAGE 

Congress nominates Jefferson as minister to France — Does not serve 

— Elected to Congress — Services on committees . . . 237 

CHAPTER XXV 

MINISTER TO FRANCE 

Jefferson accepts foreign mission— Goes to France — Services and 
occupation there — Goes to London — Coldly received — Tours 
England . . 2-11 

CHAPTEII XXVI 

THE BARBARY PIRATES 

Negotiations with Barbary powers — Truth of that situation explained 

— Washington's letters to Mohammedan rulers .... 247 

CHAPTER XXVII 

HIS SERVICES ABROAD 

Jefferson's official labors — Results — Unofficial work — Usefulness — 

Breaks wrist and quits fiddling ....... 255 

CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

Travels in France — Studies conditions of the people — His wrath 
against the tyrants who abused their power— The King, the 
noble, the priest, and the victims — Beginnings of French Revo- 
lution — Jefferson and the reformers ...... 262 



CHAPTER XXIX 

RETURN TO MONTICELLO 

Jefferson and his daughters — The convent— Jefferson and Adams at 

Amsterdam— Travels on the Rhine — Returns to Monticello . 270 

CHAPTER XXX 

DEMOCRACY IN VIROTNIA 

Origins of American institutions— Puritan and Cavalier— Settlement 
of Virnrinia— John Smith and democracy -General Courts in 
London— Jamestown Assembly of 1619— Home rule demanded 
—Virginia's treaty with Cromwell— Nathaniel Bacon . . 277 

svii 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 



CHAPTER XXXI 

BEGINNINGS OF THE REPUBLIC 



PAOi; 



First step toward organizing the Republic — Congress seeks help — 
Indians pacified — Canadian Catholics solicited — France — Covert 
methods — Paine — Franklin 283 

CHAPTER XXXII 

ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 

Articles of Confederation — Internal struggles — Shay's Rebellion — 
Steps toward Constitutional Convention — Washington, Madi- 
son, Hamilton, Jay — Edmund Randolph 290 

CHAPTER XXXIII 

THE CONSTITUTION 

Hamilton's plan of Constitution — Plan of Randolph — Compromises — 
Patrick Henry — Jay's treaty with Spain — Debate in Virginia 
Convention — Fateful letters that were delayed — An agree- 
ment between sovereign States ...... 297 

CHAPTER XXXIV 

IN Washington's cabinet 

Jefferson called to Washington's Cabinet — Hamilton and his policy — 
His class legislation and its purpose — Dupes Jefferson on 
assumption — Antagonism between the two .... 310 

CHAPTER XXXV 

THE GENET EPISODE 

Straining for an English alliance— Genet and his mission — Two sides 
to that — Misrepresentations — Hamilton's hard ingratitude and 
his injustice to France — Newspaper warfare — Freneau — Jeffer- 
son stands to his friends in spite of Washington and Hamilton 
— Resigns — Criticism answered— The cotton gin . . . 322 

CHAPTER XXXVI 

AT MONTICELLO AGAIN 

Jefferson at home — Dilapidation at Monticello — Martha Jefferson 
marries — Manner of life at Monticello^Jefferson as inventor 
— Mazzei letter — Tribute to Washington ..... 340 
xviii 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XXXVII 

ADAMS AS PRESIDENT 

PAGE 

John Adams elected President — Inherited difficulties — Troubles with 
France — Gallant James Monroe — Thomas Paine in prison — Jay's 
treaty with England — Talleyrand and the X. Y. Z. matter — Brit- 
ish outrages — War fever against France — Dr. Logan as peace- 
maker — Adams foils Hamilton, and there is no war . . , 350 

CHAPTER XXXVIII 

JEFFERSON VICE-PRESIDENT 

Federalism rampant — Alien and Sedition laws — Jefferson and Madi- 
son — Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions — Edmund Randolph's 
opinion— Jefferson as Vice-President — Was he timid, weak, and 
vacillating, as Messrs. Lodge and Roosevelt have agreed that he 
was? — His work his vindication ...... 362 

CHAPTER XXXIX 

DEFEAT FOR THE FEDERALISTS 

Party feeling — Hamilton's confession — John Adams — Career of 
Matthew Lyon — New York goes against Federalists — Cabinet 
changes — Oliver Wolcott — Aaron Burr — "Midnight Appoint- 
ments " — John Adams's isolation — He quits the field . . . 370 

CHAPTER XL 

THE JEFFERSON AND BURR CONTEST 

The electoral system — Tie between Jefferson and Burr — The con- 
test—Hamilton's part in it — Bayard— Political standards — Some 
comparisons— What was Burr's reputation at that time ? . . 382 

CHAPTER XLI 

JEFFERSON PRESIDENT 

Crisis pending— Talk of fighting— Who decided the contest in favor 
of Jefferson?— Decisive motives — Lyon, Morris, Hamilton, and 
Bayard--Jefferson inaugurated— Changes democratic manners 
— Reforms Federal judiciary — Undemocratic .... 394 

xix 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 



CHAPTER XLII 

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 

PAGE 

Jefferson a far-seeing statesman — George McDuffie — Daniel Webster 
— The Western wilderness — Jefferson and the Louisiana terri- 
tory — Napoleon — Livingston — Monroe — The Miranda scheme — 
Louisiana purchase outside the Constitution — New England 
threatens secession — Lewis and Clarke's expedition — Blaine — 
Roosevelt — The U. S. ship-of-war George Washington com- 
pelled to fly the " pirate" flag and to bear " piratical" despatches 
— Jefferson's vigor 408 

CHAPTER XLIII 

JOHN RANDOLPH, OF ROANOKE 

Character sketch of John Randolph, of Roanoke — His "royal" 

ancestry, eccentric character, and meteoric career . . . 420 

CHAPTER XLIV 

BURR, ADAMS, HAMILTON 

John Adams as Vice-President — Thomas Jefferson as Vice-President 
— Aaron Burr as Vice-President — His farewell address to the 
Senate — Hamilton stranded — Is killed by Burr — Morris's opinion 
of Hamilton 430 

CHAPTER XLV 

BRITISH AGGRESSIONS. — THE EMBARGO 

Electoral law changed — France and England at war — Neutral com- 
merce antagonized — Great Britain's outrageous treatment of the 
United States — The Embargo— Force Bill — New England pros- 
pers — Washington's mistake in policy — Results — Roosevelt's 
denunciation of Jefferson - Andrew Jackson — Battle of New 
Orleans 430 

CHAPTER XLVI 

burr's trial. — Jefferson's record 

Burr adrift — Turns conspirator — What was his scheme? — Wilkinson 
betrays Burr — Collapse of the plot — Burr tried for treason — 
Treated as a martyr ; and is saved by John Marshall — Jefferson 
declines third term— Announces a principle — Jefferson and his 
detractors — Results of his Administration ..... 447 

XX 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER XLVII 

DEBTS AND GUESTS AT MONTICELLO 

PAGE 

JeflFerson's devotion to his daughters — Martha alone remains as he 
goes into retirement — Jefferson's finances — Heavily cumbered 
with debt — Lavish hospitality — Everybody goes to Monticello — 
"Company" eats Jefferson out of house and home— He runs 
away to escape the nuisance — Has spent a lifetime and a for- 
tune building a house for miscellaneous visitors to live in . . 459 

CHAPTER XLVIII 

THE WAU OF 1812 

Federalist historians and their misrepresentations— Treason in New 
England— General Hull at Detroit — Bladensburg— AVashington 
sacked — Baltimore saved — Croghan at Fort Stephenson — Col- 
onel William Cone, of Georgia— Roosevelt and the Rough Riders 
— Mr. Madison's troubles— Jefferson founds the Navy which 
wins glory in the War of 1812 470 

CHAPTER XLIX 

RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS 

Jefferson's religious convictions — A Deist — Perhaps a Unitarian — 
Rejects dogma of Trinity — Regards Christ as a reformer, a 
good man, who was put to death because he threatened the 
status quo of his own day — Jefferson's interest in the young — 
His counsels— Champion of education — Founds University of 
Virginia 481 

CHAPTER L 

POLITICAL OPINIONS 

Europe after the downfall of Napoleon — The Holy Alliance — How 
the Monroe Doctrine came to be proclaimed — Views on finance 
— State rights and the tariff — Other political opinions . . 490 

CHAPTER LI 

LAST DATS AND DEATH 

Later Years — Reconciliation with Adams — Debts — Visit of Lafayette 

—Death 504 

xxi 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

APPENDIX 

Inaugural Address of Thomas Jefferson as President of the United 

States, March 4, 1801 519 

INDEX . . 625 



XXI 1 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING 

PAGE 

Thomas JkpperSON Frontispiece 

MoNTicELLO, Jefferson's Home near Charlottes- 
ville, Va. 70 

The Drawing-room at Monticello 130 

The House in Philadelphia in which Jefferson 
Wrote the Declaration of Independence . .160 

Francis Marion 204 

John Laurens 214 

George Rogers Clark 230 

Thomas Sumter 286 

Isaac Shelby 342 

Jefferson's Arrival at the White House . . . 398 

Andrew Jackson 448 

The University op Virginia 486 



THE LIFE AND TIMES OP 
THOMAS JEFFERSON 



CHAPTER I 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 



In the year 1G91, buying and selling in Virginia 
had to be done in markets established by law. A 
further act of the Legislature created ports of 
entry and clearing; and all goods and products 
brought into the colony, or sent out, were liable to 
forfeiture if they did not pass through these ports. 

Under this Act for Ports of 1691, a fifty-acre 
field, belonging to Benjamin Read, was laid off into 
eighty-five lots; and this was the beginning of his- 
toric Yorktown. 

A list of the original lot buyers shows the names 
of Governor Francis Nicholson, Nathaniel Bacon, 
Sr., Duddley Digges, and Thomas Jefferson. 

The father of this part-founder of Yorktown had 
emigrated from near Mount Snowdon, in Wales, 
and had represented Flower de Hundred in the 
first legislative assembly of white men which ever 
convened on the American continent — the James- 
town Assemblv of 1619. 

2 ^ 1 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Captain Thomas Jefferson of Osborne's, on the 
James, was the grandson of John Jefferson, the bur- 
gess of 1619; and a younger son of this Captain 
Thomas Jefferson Avas Peter, the father of Thomas 
Jefferson, of Monticello. 

In those days, lands and slaves were entailed 
upon the oldest son; and nothing less than an act 
of the Legislature could bring the propertj^ upon 
the market. 

Peter Jefferson being a younger son, the family 
home descended to the older brother, who remained 
at Osborne's, while Peter himself went forth into 
the world to win his own way to fortune. 

To this fact alone seems to be due the im- 
pression that Peter Jefferson was a man of inferior 
social position. Biographers, having no eyes for 
the head of the family at Osborne's, follow Peter as 
he survej^s land, locates state grants, fights In- 
dians, and makes a new home on the western bor- 
der; and they get the idea that the Jeffersons were 
not people of the first class. 

There is no evidence whatever to support the 
assertion. 

Peter Jefferson had practically the same educa- 
tion as George Washington, adopted the business 
of land surveying as Washington did, and married, 
like Washington, a lady of the highest social rank. 

While he got no immense fortune by her, as 
Washington won with the Widow Custis, he proved 

2 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

himself not the less a nobleman in that he married 
where he could expect nothing save the beautiful 
young girl he loved. 

And, after all, Jane Randolph brought to her 
spouse the richer dowry, for she bore him children. 

The suggestion so often made that Washington 
and Jefferson gained social recognition by marriage 
is an idle one. They were cadets of their houses, 
but in respectability their position was as good as 
that held by anybody. 

Wealth was not the trade-mark of a gentleman 
in Colonial Virginia; and much of what has been 
written about the social gulf which separated the 
smaller landowners from the " Tobacco Lords " is 
sheer nonsense. Sturdy yeomen of the neighbor- 
hood entered the stately homes of the Nelsons, 
Pages, Byrds, or Carters on easy terms of equality; 
and they were not in the slightest degree abashed 
by the marble mantelpieces, the grand stairways, 
or the brave display of plate on the sideboards. 

There is an instance on record which represents 
a Frenchman of the nobility coming to a Virginia 
inn and asking to have his meals served in his room. 
The landlord, who was as much of a gentleman as 
any Boiling, Blair, or Cary, told the foreign aristo- 
crat that he must eat at the common table where 
everybody else ate, or drive on. The haughty duke 
drove on. 

Such roaring blades as Patrick Henry, whose 

3 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

father was one of the small landowners, was just 
as welcome at the mansion of a Colonel Nathan 
Dandridge, to frolic away the Christmas — fiddling, 
dancing, telling funny stories — as the son of the 
proudest nabob. 

The line of admitted equality was drawn at man- 
ual labor, where, of course, it never ought to be 
drawn. But this false standard was not so entirely 
due to negro slavery as many writers claim. There 
was no slave system in Europe; and yet in England, 
France, and Germany, the citizen whose condition 
compelled him to earn his daily bread in the sweat 
of his face was held to be the social inferior of the 
man who ate the bread earned in the sweat of 
somebody else's face. 

A degrading standard? Of course it was; but 
it did not originate in the southern colonies, and its 
origin had no connection with negro slavery. 

In our mother-country of Great Britain, whose 
boast it was that no slave could breathe her air and 
remain a slave, a cadet of the highest house in the 
land — Pembroke, Percy, Douglas, or Howard — • 
would have lost caste had he earned his living as 
God had said he should. This false principle upon 
which European society was organized came over 
here with our ancestors; was, in fact, one strong 
motive for the introduction of negro slavery, and 
to a very considerable extent is the unwritten 
social law at this day. 

4 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

Rail-splitters, tenants of log-cabins, shoema- 
kers, canal-boat drivers, map pedlers, wood-cut- 
ters, fur traders, and plowboys are strong on the 
hustings; but if society ever forgives them at all, it 
is because the Statute of Limitations has made 
their crime of manual labor stale, and there is a 
certainty that the offense will not be repeated. 

Peter Jefferson lived on the very borders of civil- 
ization. He had gone West and patented a thou- 
sand acres of land in the wilderness on the Ri- 
vanna, at a time when the Indian trails were still 
warm in the woods, and when the adjoining county 
was thronged with savages. In addition to his 
one thousand acres of land he secured four hundred 
acres from the adjoining tract of his friend, Will- 
iam Randolph — a gift which was jovially disguised 
as a sale whose consideration was " Henry Weath- 
ersbourne's biggest bowl of arrack punch." Upon 
this smaller tract he built a strong, comfortable 
dwelling, which had four rooms on the first floor 
and several more in the attic. 

Having cleared away parts of the forest, and 
turned wilderness into plowed fields, he went back 
to the old settlements for his bride. 

This was Jane Randolph, the daughter of Isham 
Randolph, of Dungeness, Adjutant-General of Vir- 
ginia. 

There were no prouder people than these Ran- 
dolphs; and they were educated, refined, and hospi- 

5 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

table. They owned innumerable acres of land, fine 
houses, hordes of slaves, and traced their li-aeage 
back to the Earls of Murray in Scotland. 

Dungeness was one of the stateliest homes on 
the James; and it is said that a hundred slaves 
served in and about the mansion. 

From this grand home Peter Jefferson married 
Jane Randolph in 1738, and took her to his wilder- 
ness cottage, which he named Shadwell, in honor 
of the London parish in which she was born. 

Peter Jefferson, a man of powerful physique and 
strong mind, seems to speedily have become the 
representative man of his part of the State. He 
was a justice at the time when the jurisdiction of 
the office enabled the court to practically control 
many of the civil affairs of the county; he was a 
colonel at a time when the position made him the 
military chief of his county. 

The colonial authorities appointed him one of 
the commissioners to run the boundary line be- 
tween Virginia and North Carolina; and he assisted 
in the making of the second map of the colony — 
the first having been that made by John Smith. 
He also represented his county in the House of Bur- 
gesses. 

A rugged, masterful figure, a character whose 
strength and integrity no one doubted, Peter Jef- 
ferson was trusted by the whites, and followed when 
war was to be waged against the Indians; and the 

6 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

red men sought his advice and protection when 
they needed leniency or justice from the whites. 

To administer a dead man's large estate hon- 
estly and well is a test of virtue and skill whose 
severity numbers many a victim; Peter Jefferson 
was tried by even the fire of this ordeal and came 
forth pure gold. He broke up his own home, moved 
his family to Tuckahoe, and for seven years man- 
aged the estate of Colonel William Randolph, his 
early friend and benefactor, who had named him 
executor of his property and guardian of his son. 
For these laborious services Mr. Jefferson made no 
charge beyond the support of himself and family 
while executing the trust. 

Not much given to books was this hardy pioneer, 
for his education had been slight, and his life of toil 
and struggle had left him few opportunities for 
study; but he carried several standard works with 
him into the wilderness, and of his Shakespeare, 
Addison, Pope, and Swift he was an appreciative 
reader. Doddridge's Sermons was a book which he 
rated as " more precious than gold; the best legacy 
I can leave my children," for Mr. Jefferson was a 
stanch Church of England man, served in the ves- 
try, and had his children baptized in the faith. 

This earnest, honest, active, progressive man 
was cut off in his prime — dying of sudden illness 
August 17, 1757, in his fiftieth year. 

Thomas Jefferson, of whose life and times we 

7 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

write, was the third child at Shadwell and was 
born April 2, 1743, O. S. 

He was the first son, and his proud father began 
to train him from infancy for a career of usefulness. 
The boy was taught at home as well as at school, 
and was made to take regular phy^cal exercise in 
the open air; he learned to manage a horse under 
the saddle, and a boat on the river. He was en- 
couraged to hunt with dog and gun, to dance at 
country balls, and to enter into the plays and 
games of the young. 

Peter Jefferson not only had implicit faith in 
Doddridge's Sermons, but he had a profound appre- 
ciation of the value of a thorough education. He 
wanted his boy taught Latin, Greek, and French, 
as well as English; and he showed him how to keep 
accounts, instructing him in the clear, legible, care- 
ful penmanship which became famous, and selected 
the books which he should read. 

Had he been specially set apart and consecrated 
to a great life-work, the lad could not have been 
more systematically developed. He heard his father 
read from the poems of Pope, the Spectator of 
Addison, and the dramas of Shakespeare. He 
had the benefit of parental guidance in getting his 
lessons by the fireside at night. He listened to his 
father's sound advice; the wise, strong man, 
deeply experienced in actual life, gave form and 
direction to the ideas of the boy. The lad was 

8 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

eleven years old when George Washington, away 
off in the woods of the Ohio, fired the shot which 
convulsed the world and began wars which cost the 
lives of a million men. He was twelve years old 
when the French and Indians annihilated Braddock 
and came down upon the Virginia frontier with 
torch and tomahawk; at which time his father, as 
colonel of the militia, led it against the red men in 
Augusta, the adjoining county. 

The Indians exercised a fascination over young 
Thomas Jefferson, and he ever remained a friend 
to that hardly used race. He heard their chiefs 
at his father's hearth and realized the profound 
patjios of their fate. He heard the Cherokee chief, 
Ontassit6, as he stood in the glory of the full moon, 
make his farewell speech to his tribesmen on the 
night before he sailed for England. This dramatic 
scene — the brilliant moonlight, the silent audience 
of savages, the tall form of the chief, the heart- 
moving tones of his voice — always remained in Mr. 
Jefferson's memory as perfect as a picture. 

The savage whom Mr. Jefferson called Ontas- 
sit^ is, in other books, named Oconostata, and it 
may interest the reader to know more about him. 

When he reached London he received marked 
attentions from King George II and Queen Caro- 
line. 

The king shook hands with him, and drank Hol- 
lands with him at the royal table in the palace of 

9 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

St. James. The ships, the troops, the arsenals, the 
great London crowds, were all shown to him in 
order that his mind might be deeply impressed with 
the power of the English people. Queen Caroline 
introduced the chief to the ladies of her court, 
drove him about the parks, and completely capti- 
vated the handsome, manly Oconostata. He re- 
turned home a warm friend of the English, and so 
remained throughout his life. 

It was he who leased to the whites, under Sevier 
and Robertson, the lands of the Watauga, the set- 
tlement which was the beginning of Tennessee. 
But when he realized that this was only a begin- 
ning, and that the demands of the settlers had no 
limits, he opposed further cessions with all his elo- 
quence — vainly. 

True to his British friends, the Cherokee king 
opposed the Americans in the Revolutionary War, 
and one disaster after another befell him. He 
was no match for such men as Sevier, Robertson, 
Shelby, Campbell, and Lewis. Finally, the Chero- 
kees, weary of continual losses and defeats, made a 
scapegoat of their chief. Oconostata was deposed, 
and another king put in his place. 

Had Thomas Jefferson during his later years 
wandered into the Cherokee country, he might have 
seen again the tall Indian whose oratory had 
charmed him that moonlight evening in Virginia so 
many years before. But it was no longer Ocono- 

10 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

stata the proud, the strong, the magnetic; it was a 
poor old beggar Indian, fallen upon evil days, with 
none so poor as to do him reverence. Instead of a 
torrent of eloquence, he would have heard from 
those lips, now, a plea for a measure of meal or a 
drink of whisky — for the hero of Jefferson's boyish 
recollection, the courted guest of a British king 
and queen, had become a broken, besotted, despised, 
and homeless vagabond. 

Great Britain had used him while he could be of 
use, and had then thrown him aside. Had he 
fought for the colonists, his fate and that of his 
people would have been practically the same. 

No matter who conquered in American wars, the 
Indian invariably lost ground. 

At the time of his father's death, Thomas Jeffer- 
son was fourteen years old, and had been attending 
school since the age of five. His father left dying 
instructions for the thorough education of the boy, 
cautioning Mrs. Jefferson especially not to permit 
him to neglect bodily exercise. 

" A thorough classical education " on the one 
hand, and " the exercise requisite for the body's 
development " on the other; such was the good old 
way and simple plan, in pursuance of which the 
lad already knew Latin, Greek, and French; already 
knew how to row a boat, master a horse, use a gun, 
and hold his own in athletic games and sports. 

Peter Jefferson cherished the belief that those 

11 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

alone who were strong in body could be strong and 
free in mind. 

This dogma is safe and sound, yet has its excep- 
tions, A Gladstone must have his formula and can 
not live without it; his meat must have just thirty- 
two grinds between his teeth before it is swal- 
lowed; his ax must chop its tree in the park every 
day or so; and he must have his jog-trot on foot 
every afternoon. 

A D'Israeli will live by the opposite rule, will 
take no thirty-two chews on his meat, will chop no 
tree, will endure no daily jog-trot, and yet in con- 
tests of the mind, in skill of mental wrestle, will 
nearly always surpass Gladstone, keeping the heels 
of that good formalist in the air to an extent that 
shakes one's faith in formula. 

President Roosevelt would probably think that 
the world was coming to an end if he were com- 
pelled to forego his strenuous physical exercise, his 
walks, rides, hunts, and fencing bouts. Yet there 
is Mr. Chamberlain on the other side of the water, 
who never walks for exercise, never mounts a horse, 
never hunts, never touches a foil; and yet he ap- 
pears to turn off quite as much work, appears to 
swing the universe his way just about as often as 
Mr. Roosevelt. All of which merely illustrates the 
truth that no one formula will fit in every case. 

We shall see stalwart Thomas Jefferson taking 
his exercise and profiting by it; we shall see small 

12 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

James Madison neglecting his horse, gun, rowboat, 
and jog-trot; yet in the long, long rim of life we 
shall see prim little James putting out his one 
talent to just as good interest as stalwart Thomas 
gets on his five; and we shall see Mr. Madison con- 
versing at Montpelier ever so cheerily with Harriet 
Martineau, showing the brightest, broadest com- 
prehension of all current events and issues, at the 
age of eighty-four, when Mr. Jefferson is already 
dead at the age of eighty-three, utterly worn out. 
Nevertheless, the strong mind in the strong body 
must be better than the strong mind in the weak 
body; and Peter Jefferson's djing admonitions 
were on the right line. 

In Virginia the clergy of the established Church 
were paid in tobacco, and the net proceeds in cash 
were not too burdensome to the purse. To eke out 
their incomes, many of these ministers of the Gos- 
pel opened schools at their parsonages, the pupils 
often being taken into their homes as boarders dur- 
ing the terms. 

It was on this plan that Thomas Jefferson was 
given nearly six years of his schooling, about four 
years at the parsonage of the Rev. William Doug- 
lass, and two 3^ears at that of Rev. James Maury, 

At the former place he was charged not quite 
eighty dollars per year for board and tuition; at 
the latter, not quite one hundred dollars. 

On January 14, 1760, young Jefferson wrote to 

13 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

his guardian, Mr. John Harvey, expressing the wish 
to leave the Maury school and to enter college. 
Permission was given, and mounting his fine saddle- 
horse, the sanguine, ambitious boy rode away from 
Shadwell to Williamsburg to enter William and 
Mary, the oldest college in America, after Harvard. 

From many different books we gather many dif- 
ferent impressions of the Virginia of this period; 
and its capital, Williamsburg, appears now as a 
center of fashion blazing with splendor, and then 
as a meager assortment of cheap houses dropped at 
irregular intervals along streets of mud which had 
no sewers and no sidewalks. 

Virginia, like the other colonies, was in its form- 
ative state, and the truth no doubt is that it pre- 
sented every social contrast. There were certainly 
some grand homes in the tide-water section, and 
there were many refined, cultured people. 

The Virginian of the best type had no superior 
anywhere. He belonged to that order of natural 
nobility which depends on no touch of royal sword, 
owes nothing to ribbons, stars, and garters. In 
this highest order of knighthood it was accounted 
a disgrace to be cowardly, mean, or false; honor out- 
weighed gold; duty was a higher word than suc- 
cess; life less dear than country. It cultivated a 
chivalrous regard for pure womanhood; a pride 
which preferred death to a stain. To estimate man 
or woman by the standard of wealth, or the mere 

14 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

standard of official position, was something of 
which the Virginians never dreamed. 

He loved his king — it was his education; loved 
the church — it was his inherited creed; loved the 
aristocratic organization of the province — it was 
his environment, he had known no other; but, above 
all things, he held his self-respect, his independ- 
ence, his individuality; and upon his reserved rights 
as a man, neither king, nor lord, nor priest, nor fel- 
low aristocrat might trench, for it was sacred. To 
protect himself there, he would fight anybody, any 
time, and to the death. 

But to those who met him on his own terms of 
high breeding, there never was a man who was 
kinder, truer, or knightlier in the best sense of the 
word than was the Virginian of the old school. 

Nor was education in Virginia so much neg- 
lected as most authors contend. There were no free 
schools, it is true. Parental responsibilities were 
not then unloaded on teachers. Little boys and 
girls, scarcely knee high, did not then stagger 
through the streets under a burden of school-books; 
babes did not lisp physiology, and education did not 
consist in mere cramming of the youthful mind 
with undigested book-learning. 

But if the purpose of any system of society and 
education be to produce men, there was virtue in the 
colonial system somew^here. Stronger, better men 
no system has ever produced. The private tutor, 

15 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

the parsonage teacher, the private school, William 
and Mary College, fireside instructions, home train- 
ing, association with high-minded people, the read- 
ing of a few standard books — accompanied with the 
manly sport of fox-hunting, boat-rowing, horse- 
back riding, hunting with gun and dog, dancing 
at country parties — this was the system which 
formed the men who, in the day of trial, were able 
to do all that was necessary for their country, 
both in the council-room and on the field of battle. 

Not greater or truer men were those who trod 
the floor at my Lady Richmond's ball on the eve of 
Waterloo than those Virginians who danced in the 
Apollo room of the Williamsburg tavern; men who 
were to sound the tocsin of revolution, challenge 
Great Britain to the stern issues of the sword, and 
lead thirteen little colonies up the arduous road to 
nationality and empire. 

Out of the college halls of old William and 
Mary went forth into the many fields of human 
endeavor men as loftily worthy as ever made good 
presidents, good governors, good Supreme Court 
judges, good senators, good leaders of armies, good 
workers of benign reforms for the welfare of the 
race. Not Oxford, not Harvard, can show a 
prouder roll of honor. 

It is true that there was a class of whites in 
Virginia, as in all other colonies, who were poor, 
shiftless, ignorant, and more or less vicious. 

16 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

These were the men whose recreation it was to 
fight and carouse, to bite off ears and noses, to 
gouge out eyes. 

The human brute thrived in colonial Virginia, 
just as he thrives in twentieth century New York 
and Boston. 

How to eliminate him is a problem which may 
be solved when all of our foreign missionaries 
come home to stay. 

It was fortunate for Thomas Jefferson that the 
plastic period of his young manhood was spent in 
a favorable environment. From his text-books and 
his college professors he learned a great deal, but 
what influenced his opinions chiefly was the con- 
tact with the men of the outer world whom he met 
in social intercourse. He studied — studied hard 
and with system — but he was no recluse, no book- 
worm. The boy was fresh from the country, the 
backwoods, where he had seen almost nobody. His 
mother, his sisters, his little brother, his rever- 
end teachers, his raw schoolmates, a few illiterate 
farmers of the neighborhood — these were the peo- 
ple he had come in contact with at Shadwell. 

Now all was difi'erent. He was introduced into 
polite circles, met cultivated and experienced men, 
met lovely and refined ladies, felt the pleasure and 
temptation of social entertainments. More than 
that, he attracted the eye and won the heart of the 
governor, Fauquier, and was made to feel quite at 
3 17 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

home at the governor's palace, where he often 
dined as a familiar guest in company with the emi- 
nent lawyer, Mr. Wythe, and Dr. Small, the college 
professor whom he most loved. 

Music appears to have been one of the mystic 
ties which bound the college boy and the king's 
governor together in friendship, for they were 
both music-makers and musical enthusiasts. 

Once a week, Jefferson would take his fiddle 
under his arm and go over to the palace where the 
amateur band, of which the genial Fauquier was 
a member, held its regular performance. 

It was Dr. Small who introduced Jefferson to 
the governor; and it was Dr. Small who had much 
to do with forming the mind, shaping the princi- 
ples of his favorite student. A man of varied 
learning, Dr. Small was also a thinker, bold and 
independent, who had reached conclusions which 
were altogether different from the narrow, intol- 
erant, unprogressive views of the average profess- 
or of his day. These broad, liberal ideas he was 
fond of discussing with so intelligent a listener as 
Jefferson; and upon the student's mind Dr. Small 
exerted an influence " which probably fixed his 
destiny." 

Having entered an advanced class, Mr. Jeffer- 
son completed his collegiate course in two years. 
What had he learned thus far? 

Latin and Greek he had mastered; and he never 

18 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

forgot them, as so many scholars do. In his old 
age, when fortune had taken wings and political 
honors were things of the past, he could turn again 
to the classics and forget his cares in the charms 
of ancient literature. French he was not able to 
speak with any fluency or success, but he could 
read it with ease. 

In mathematics he was at his best, and he could 
read off the most abstruse processes " with the facil- 
ity of common discourse." This study also he kept 
up as long as he lived; and he delighted in applying 
its principles to anything and everything, large 
and small, useful and speculative, important and 
trivial, sublime and ridiculous. And yet this mas- 
ter of the craft, like Napoleon, rarely added up a 
column of figures, or cast a balance, without 
making a mistake. 

In the belles-lettres department he was pro- 
ficient. He read widely, became familiar with the 
masterpieces, ancient and modern, but his taste 
was not correct, nor his judgment sound. 

All the poets he had enjoyed; and after having 
examined the treasures of each he was not 
ashamed to own that he thought Ossian " the 
greatest poet that had ever existed." 

He had no liking for novels, though he paid 
Cervantes the tribute of reading Don Quixote 
twice. 

But it must be borne in mind that novel-writing 

19 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

in Jefferson's youth was an infant industry in com- 
parison with what it soon became. He believed 
that the writings of Sterne formed the best course 
of morality ever written; and he expressed unmiti- 
gated contempt for Plato as a mere visionary. 

Far in advance of the youth of his day in aca- 
demic knowledge, Mr. Jefferson had no sooner left 
college than he took up the study of law. Therein 
his guide, philosopher, and friend was George 
Wythe, a most excellent man and able lawyer. As 
Mr. Wythe lived in Williamsburg, young Jefferson 
was there much of his time during the five years 
that he spent in preparing for the bar. 

Possessed of a competence, and devoted to his 
books, the young man was in no hurry to throw 
himself into active practise. Just as he had stud- 
ied systematically at college, he continued to do 
at home. He rose as soon as he could see the 
hands of the clock, and passed the day with his 
books, varied with exercise on foot or horseback. 
The evening he filled with music — he and his 
favorite sister, Jane, singing the ballads and the 
psalms of that olden time to the accompaniment 
of his violin. 

Thomas Jefferson became of age in 1764, while 
he was still studying law, and he celebrated that 
event by setting out an avenue of trees. He was 
now fully developed physically, and was a fine 
specimen of manhood. He was six feet two and a 

20 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

half inches in height; was active and strong; was 
healthy and good to look upon, but not handsome. 
His figure was spare, if not slender, and was not 
well built, not compact, like his father's, but more 
on the angular, shackling order, with large wrists, 
large hands and feet — a raw-boned man; but, 
nevertheless, he was so straight and vigorous, so 
able to bear himself with credit in ballroom or 
hunting field, was so fine a horseman, so much an 
adept in all manly sports and games, that his lack 
of perfect symmetry was rarely noticed. His hair, 
abundant and silken, was light auburn, or sandy; 
his eyes were gray, flecked with hazel, and were 
clear, mild, expressive, full, and deep set; his teeth 
were perfect; his chin and mouth were good fea- 
tures without being particularly fine; his nose was 
somewhat too small for the angular breadth of 
face, and his neck was so long as to give his head 
the appearance of being habitually thrust forward; 
his complexion was ruddy, of the peculiar redness 
caused by the showing of minute veins beneath a 
thin skin which peeled off under the slightest ex- 
posure to sun or wind. 

His manners were simple and cordial, his voice 
pleasing to the ear, and his temper gentle, con- 
ciliatory, forgiving. No rancor or vindictiveness 
marred his youth, and there is no recorded instance 
of his having been subjected to a personal insult, 
or drawn into a personal brawl. He was a temper- 

21 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

ate, truthful, honest, warm-hearted boy; one whom 
the young people liked because of his genial, social, 
sport-loving nature; one whom the elders liked 
because he gave rein to no vices, was a pattern of 
good behavior, and was deferential to his seniors. 
He did not use tobacco, did not gamble, was not 
profane, and did not look upon white wine or red. 

In after life he drank but one glass of water 
per day, and indulged in several glasses of wine. 
So also his faithful account-books show that when 
he had grown older he won nearly as much as two 
dollars at one sitting at a game of cards, and four- 
teen cents at backgammon. At lotto he met with 
disaster, for he records that he lost nearly five dol- 
lars at one time. In other words, Jefferson played 
games of chance for trifling stakes just as Wash- 
ington and others, including the state clergy, did 
in those days. It was social pastime with them, 
and, with them, went no further. 

It may have been after his Waterloo at lotto 
that Mr. Jefferson penned this truism : " Gambling 
corrupts all dispositions, and creates a habit of 
hostility against all mankind." 

Later in life his manner to strangers seemed 
cold and reserved; and he developed a capacity for 
hatred which would have satisfied Dr. Sam John- 
son. This was, however, after he had been through 
the fiery ordeal of politics, had been beat upon by 
as fierce a storm of abuse and slander as ever 

22 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

assailed a statesman so essentially pure, so abso- 
lutely patriotic, so consistently unselfish and be- 
nevolent. 

One of the most beautiful traits in Mr. Jeffer- 
son's character was his capacity for friendship — 
deep, lasting, tender, splendidly loyal friendship. 
Few were the individuals he ever hated; and he 
loved a great many, some of them being persons 
whom others found it hard to love — John Adams, 
for example. We will find these friendships mul- 
tiplying around him at every stage of his career, 
we will see them embrace all sorts and conditions 
of men. We will see his sympathetic affection 
reaching out to warriors like Paul Jones and 
George Rogers Clarke, to savants like Buffon and 
Cabanis. His circle of good-fellowship embraced 
such opposite characters as the Abb^ Corea and 
Dr. Rush, the Marquis of Chastelleux and Samuel 
Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Tobias Lear. He 
was endeared to English Priestley and to French 
La Fayette, to Mazzie the Italian and Kosciusko the 
Pole, to James Madison, the scholarly statesman, 
and to Thomas Paine, the unpolished patriot. And 
few men have even shown more stanchness, more 
downright pluck in standing by his friends, even 
when he incurred abuse and losses by doing so. 

But the most thoroughly congenial tie he ever 
formed in the way of manly friendship was with 
Dabney Carr, who loved books as Jefferson loved 

23 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

them, whose soul was filled with the same enthu- 
siasm for things beautiful and true and great; 
whose every pulse-beat was that of a man warmly 
loving, aspiring loftily, eager for thorough equip- 
ment, that he might bear himself gallantly in the 
great battle of life. 

This young man had all the tastes which Jeffer- 
son had, many of the gifts which made Jefferson 
great, and had the other great gifts which Jeffer- 
son lacked. Notably Dabney Carr was bold in 
action, fearless in debate, an orator and lawyer 
whose name was mentioned with praise by those 
who coupled it with that of Patrick Henry. Very 
beautiful was the love and trust which bound these 
two ambitious young men together. In their walks 
and exercises, their talks and their meditations, 
they went in company, the one with the other. 

On the wooded mountainside they had made a 
rough seat under a noble tree; and to this retired 
spot they would bring their books for study and 
for thought. Here they would give loose rein to 
imagination as they discussed their plans for the 
present and their hopes for the future; and here 
they promised each other that when life's hurly- 
burly was done, and there was no longer daylight 
in which any man could hope and plan and work, 
they should sleep the long sleep under the shadow 
of the great tree. 

A day dream of politically minded young men. 
24 



YOUTH AND EDUCATION 

The mountain was Monticello— a part of the 
Peter Jefferson estate; and as the young men stood 
upon its summit and gazed upon one of the fair- 
est landscapes nature's many-colored brush ever 
painted, Jefferson's fancy kindled; and he dreamed 
of a lovely home that he should make for himself 
up there in the pure air, amid the clouds and the 
majestic trees. 

Some day he would build it; some day he would 
lead to its portals the fairest of brides; some day 
he would stand upon its classic portico, surrounded 
by those who loved him best, and look forth tran- 
quilly upon the beauties of the world — a world in 
which he should have done his own part before he 
came back here for rest in the evening of life. 

And when all was done, he would sleep beneath 
the giant oak, he and Dabney Carr, where they had 
communed together in the cloudless days when 
they were boys. 

To dream is one thing — a comparatively easy 
thing; to hold firmly the ideal is quite another; and 
to work it out, is yet another. Jefferson dreamed, 
held firmly to his dream, and worked it out. 

On the summit of the hill was built the home, 
planned in his brain, made almost by his hands — 
a classic, lovely, imposing home. To be its queen 
he did bring as his bride one of the fairest, sweet- 
est, truest of women; children blessed the union; 
and amid those he loved best he did look down on 

25 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

the world from the mountain home tranquilly, as 
the soldier might gaze again upon a battle-field 
in which he had been a standard-bearer. And 
when all was done, and the feeble hands had 
dropped the greater tasks, his faltering feet 
brought him back here for the quiet of the after- 
noon. And when it came to be nightfall, and the 
lights were out, he was laid to his rest under the 
big tree by the side of Dabney Carr. 



2n 



CHAPTER II 

BEGINNINGS OF THE REVOLUTION 

It serves no useful purpose now, perhaps, to 
enter into elaborate discussion of the rights and 
wrongs of the Revolutionary War. Yet we can 
not appreciate the conduct of any of the great 
actors on that stage unless we know something 
about the play. 

In the recent years a tendency has been shown 
by some historians to justify Great Britain and to 
blame the colonies. The mother country, it would 
seem, was governing her offspring in a parentally 
considerate manner, when certain wicked men, for 
sinister purposes, sowed seeds of discord, culti- 
vated rebellion, and garnered independence. The 
Americans were the aggressors. They started a 
quarrel without just cause, and they kept it up in 
spite of all efforts at reconciliation. Historians of 
this school almost convince us that our forefathers 
wantonly dragged British soldiers over here from 
the pure love of combat, coerced the infamous lit- 
tle despots of Germany to hire Hessians to King 
George, and bearded that well-intentioned mon- 
arch for no reason on earth save that they did not 
want to pay their British debts. 

Reading the pages of Mr. Sydney George Fisher 

27 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

and some others, we can almost fancy that the war 
was foujrht on the other side of the ocean, and that 
England was the land that was Invaded, and swept 
by fire and sword. We almost begin to fear that 
our forefathers were the ruthless Anglo-Saxons 
who whetted the red man's tomahawk, lit his 
torch, fired his soul with the passions of hell, and 
sent him on his mission of murder. 

A very great deal of forgetting must be done 
before the true-hearted American of to-day can be 
brought to pin his faith to histories of this sort, 
and to assume an attitude of apology for the Revo- 
lutionary War. It will not do to say that Great 
Britain so loved her little American colonies that 
she made war upon France to protect them; that 
she incurred heavy expense thereby, and that she 
taxed the colonies to defray the cost of colonial 
defense. Nor will it do to say that the odious navi- 
gation acts of which the colonies complained were 
such as other parent countries imposed upon their 
colonies, and that the American Smugglers, John 
Hancock & Co., were at the bottom of the trouble. 

Broadly stated, the historical truth is that 
Great Britain had long been at de ath-grip s with 
Fran ce for leaders hip amon g the natio ns, f or worl d 
empire . The quarrel and the contest had origi- 
nated ever so lon g be fore. Rac eha tred, dynastic 
feiLd s, clashing ambitions, reHgious antagonisms, 
had all played their parts; and the struggle had 

28 



BEGINNINGS OF THE REVOLUTION 

goue on, with interval of peace, fo e, centuries . 
Louis XIV inherited the quarrel, and spent a vast 
deal of his time, strength, and resources fighting it 
out, losing heavily before he quit. Louis XV was 
born into the rivalry, and before he died England 
had won the race. Franc^ had been practically 
driven out of I ndia , out of America, and out of 
com petition with Great Britain. 

The bn tilp-royn l between these tw o nation s had 
been waged from one generation to another, on land 
and sea, secretly and openly, honorably and dis- 
honorably, by warriors and by statesmen, by diplo- 
mats and by priests, by stratagem and by force, by 
money and by arms. When British troops fought 
the French in America their motive was precisely 
what it was when they fought the French in Hin- 
dustan. Love for the poor American had no more 
to do with it in the one case than love for the poor 
Hindu had to do with it in the other. Whe n Wolfe 
scaled the heights of Quebec in 1757, his object 
was exactly that which Br ad doc k sought in 1755, 
and exactly that sought and won by Clh'e in Hin- 
dustan when, in 1757, he fought at Plassey. The 
French were combated and routed at M inden . in 
Germany, for the sam e reas on that brought disas- 
ter upon them in the ancient East and in the wil- 
derness of the West. So selfish was the purpose 
of the mother country in all this that when four 
thousand heroic New England militia captured 

29 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

from the French the fortres s of Louisbu rg, upon 

which fiv e_min ion do llars had been spent, and 

which was considered the Gibr altar of the New 

■ ■ ^ 

World, Great Britain handed it back to France in 
exchange for a city in Hindustan, without asking 
the colonies the slightest odds about it. 

France should not have the colonies; to that 
extent Great Britain loved them, but not much 
further. For a hundred years at a time, the 
mother country had le ft the colon ies to maintain 
themselves, unaided against both French and In- 
dians. When English armies did come, it was 
upo n the colon ies that the losses and h o.rror s of 
war most heavily fell. Who but the Virginians 
held the border a^ter Braddock's defeat, beating 
back the infuriated savages, enduring hardships 
which so wrung the heart of W^ashington that he 
wished he might offer his own life as a sacrifice to 
shield his countrymen? 

No; England had rolled up no debt of gratitude 
against her colonies. She had not brought the 
hardy pioneers over here. As a rule, she had 
djisjau them here. They had come as fugitives fly- 
ing to the woods to escape her hard yoke. She had 
no t mainta ined them here. As a rule, they had got 
nothing from the crown, nothing from Parliament 
save the privilege of battling as best they might 
against the terrors of the wilderness and the red 
man who dwelt within it. Not until the colonies 

30 



BEGINNINGS OF THE REVOLUTION 

had begun to grow__strong, uot until Am ericj iD 
trade began to be a so urce of Britisji p rofit , did the 
mother country's government begin to develop pa- 
rental interest in the abandoned child. 

As to the navig ation law^s , it is clear that they 
were designed to drai n every surp lus American 
d ollar into the Engli sh pur se. Doubtless other 
nations were plundering their colonies in the same 
manner, but it was cr uel robber y nevertheless. 

Tobacco raised in the South could b e sold no- 
where sa ve in Engla nd, and on its way to market 
Avas victimized by a serie s of pilfe rings which 
closely resemble the commercial rascalities which 
a bale of cotton now suffers on its journey from 
field to factory. 

In the one case, as in the other, the producer 
had n o redres s: and by the time all the vultures 
had had their morsels the bones carried little flesh. 

The protective system had Great Britain by the 
throat in those days, and while it did not commit 
the colossal crimes against reason, common sense, 
and common honesty which the same monstrous 
system now commits daily in our Republic, it was 
sufficiently tyrannical and unjust to become a 
source of universal discontent. 

In order that the manufacturer of hats in Eng- 
land might be " protected " from competition, the 
skin of th e beave r which was trapped in A meric a 
mu st be se nt to.Englajid to be made into a hat. 

31 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Colo uial woo l mu st go to En glan d before it could 
be made into cloth. In law, it would have been an 
act of piracy to print an Enj^ lish Bible in the 
colonies. 

To " protect " Great Britain's infant industry 
of cutlery, the Pennsylvanian who dug and smelted 
iron ore was not allowed to turn it into scythes or 
knife-blades. Not only must all American produce 
be sent to English markets, but the return cargo 
must be bought of British dealers in British ports. 
Literally, the colonist was robbed going and com- 
ing. It was hardly considered a joke when a sar- 
castic member of the House of Commons proposed 
that the colonies should be compelled to send their 
horses to England to be shod, 

William Pitt declared that the colonists could 
not l egally make a horses hoe nail . Carolinians 
were even denied the right to ru n turpent ine 
and tar. 

In our day the system works just as it used to 
do, the main difference being that Americans rob 
Americans; and that the venue of the crime is here 
instead of there. 

Finally, the reader may be reminded of the fact 
that, after the war of the American Revolution, 
Great Britain changed her entir e colonia l pojjiiy. 
She no longer asserted the right of her Parliament 
to tax her distant colonies; she conceded to them 
the principle of local self-government. 

32 



BEGINNINGS OF THE REVOLUTION 

These sweeping changes were a confession that 
in her dispute with her American colonies she had 
been wrong; that her position was untenable, and 
that she did not dare to leave her colonial system 
in such shape that the same issue might be made 
again. 

During those years when Thomas Jefferson was 
so quietly schooling himself at Williamsburg and 
Shadwell — years in which Patrick Henry was pick- 
ing up his first cases and fees — occasionally at- 
tending to travelers at his father-in-law's tavern — 
it is curious to think of how many vital changes 
were taking place in the great world of which they 
knew nothing. They kept up with affairs around 
them, and had the keenest interest in local life; but 
of the outside world the people of that day and 
generation knew little and cared less. 

Nowadays, the poorest workman wants to know 
what is going on in Europe, Asia, Africa. People 
who hardly know where next month's bread is 
coming from, get intensely excited over a crisis in 
China or Venezuela; follow every movement in 
South African wars; attend in spirit the opening of 
a Kiel canal, or the building of a gigantic dam on 
the Nile, or the cutting of a passage through the 
Isthmus of Panama. 

It would be a cheerless day in thousands of cot- 
tage homes if the newspapers failed to chronicle 
the latest freak of the Kaiser, or the Sunday maga- 
4 33 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

ziiie supplements failed to print one more of his 
million and odd photographs. 

" The necessaries of life " is a phrase whose 
meaning we have revolutionized, and our coffee and 
our bread and our tobacco and our literature would 
leave us short on actual necessaries if we could 
not mingle with them the most recent doings on 
the Riviera, on the stock exchange, in the parlia- 
ments of the nations, and in the various fields of 
colonization conquest where the white man's theory 
of benevolent assimilation gets turned into the col- 
ored brother's burden of foreign rule, taxation, and 
extermination. 

If the King of England catches a new cough or 
catarrh, we must know it; if the Pope's health or 
appetite varies a hair's breadth from the normal, 
we must know it; if Tolstoi, Ibsen, or Kipling has 
a new word to say, we must hear it; if the Emperor 
William has another grand-stand play to make, we 
must see it. And, by all means, we must be kept 
supplied with the freshest scandals in high life, en- 
riched by piquant details, and illustrated by pic- 
tures which lighten the task of imagination. 

Very different was the state of things in the old 
colonial times. 

Buried in his books and in the petty happenings 
of his neighborhood, young Jefferson saw nothing 
of the great events that w^ere passing on the broad 
stage of the w^orld. Unfelt by him were the strug- 

34 



BEGINNINGS OF THE REVOLUTION 

gle of Frederick the Great to turn the recent mar- 
quisate of Brandenburg into a veritable kingdom 
of the first class, as were the despairing efforts of 
Corsica to maintain her independence. While he 
fiddled with versatile Fauquier, empires changed 
hands, remote Romes burned, and he never knew it. 
He rosined the bow and patted the foot happily 
unconscious of the progress of the English and 
the French in pulling down the native empire in 
India. 

Nor could Thomas Jefferson have known that in 
the same year that he became of ag e a popula r 
nijtvpnip^]f had begun in the French province of 
Lo uisiaaa — a m ovemen t whose purpose was to 
es tablish an inde penden t re public . 

In that year (17G4) a letter came to New Orleans 
from Louis X V of Fraii ce, informing the Louisiana 
colonists that he had ced ed them and thei r coun - 
try to„_SliiiUi, This cession aroused indignation 
throughout Louisiana among the French, the Ger- 
man settlers, and the Acadians who came to this 
far country after having been cruell.y driven out of 
their Nova Scotia homes by the British. 

Led by Lafreniere, who was the royal attorney 
and the head of the provincial council, the malcon- 
tents began to hold meetings and to prep are plan s 
for their indepe ndent republ ic. In 1765 each par- 
is hJ^_Jx)ijjidaiLii electe d delegat es to a co nventio n, 
which decided to -sen d a repre sentative to F rance 

35 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

to pi'iil^ against the cession to Spain. The mis- 
sion accomplished nothing-; the king's minister, 
Choiseul, sent word that the colonists must submit. 

The return of the messenger with this reply to 
their protest roused the mal cojiten ts to decisive 
action. On the night of October 28, 1768 , they took 
forci ble possess ion of New Orleans. 

The council ex pelled the Spanis h office r who 
had come to take over the cession, and a memorial 
was issued to justify the conduct of the insur- 
gents. Claiming to be loyal and devoted subjects 
of the King of France they prot ested earnestly 
against being handed over to Spain. 

This noble sentiment was uttered by Lafreniere 
in his address to the council, and by the council in 
its memorial : " With out libert y the re are few^ vir - 
tues^ Des potism breeds cowardice, and deepens 
the abys s of vices .'- But Louisiana was not yet 
prepared for a republic. When Spain sent a large 
fleet and militar y for ce to put down the revolt, it 
coll apsed without a struggle. Lafreniere and two 
of his comrades were sentenced to death and shot 
by Spanish soldiers. Other leaders in the popular 
movement were punished by heavy sentence of im- 
prisonment. Villare, commander of the German 
colonists, was so cruelly bayoneted by the Spanish 
soldiers who took him, that he die d in priso n. 
Thus the fir st strueig le mad e in Amer ica against 
divin e rig ht and ab solutism faile d utterl y. 

36 



BEGINNINGS OF THE REVOLUTION 

Jefferson was deep in the classics, and in love- 
passages with Rebecca Burwell, when Pontiac's 
great war-belt was flying through the northwest- 
ern woods, rousing the tribes to battle against the 
ever-encroaching whites. Not even in his mind's 
eye did he witness the dramatic scene when Pon- 
tiac and his chosen band stalked into Detroit with 
their sawed-off guns under their blankets expect- 
ing to surprise and capture the fort, only to find 
that the whites had been forewarned, that soldiers 
stood in line with muskets ready, and the steady 
beat of the drum told the wily strategist that his 
game was lost. 

Out of this trap Pontiac escapes, and his next 
play is better. 

There is a grand game of ball before the fort at 
Mackinaw; whites are invited to come and see; 
there is a fine spectacle of naked Indians playing a 
championship game which in many respects resem- 
bled football, only the ball is small and is struck 
with bats. The red men shout, the red men run 
and struggle after the ball, the white men look on, 
become interested, get more or less excited. The 
players run back and forth, far and near; the ball 
flies this way and that. It is a splendid game. 

Look! High over the heads of all flies the ball, 
and it hits the ground near the gate of the fort. 
Red men give cry, and they chase the ball; they 
run toward the gate of the fort, they snatch toma- 

37 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

hawks from squaws who have kept them concealed 
under their dress; and before the dazed sentinels 
know what is happening, the shout of the ball- 
player has changed to the war-whoop of the war- 
rior, and the hatchet sinks into the sentinel's brain. 
The game of ball is a trick of war, and the Eng- 
lish fort is its prize. 



38 



CHAPTER III 

STAMP ACT TIMES 

In the year 1765 Great Britain was feeling 
strong and proud. In every quarter of the globe 
her arms had triumphed. France and Spain had 
been humbled, immense territory had been con- 
quered, she was undisputed mistress of the seas, 
the Indian outbreak had been put down, Pontiac 
had smoked his great pipe of peace and gone to his 
hut in the woods, never to lead war band again. 
Now was the time to have certain issues settled 
with the colonies. They had not pleased the 
mother country, had not come up with quotas of 
money assessed against them, had not shown the 
most dutiful spirit, had, in fact, given offense to 
many insolent English officials, from whose point 
of view a colonial was an inferior who had few 
rights they were bound to respect. In this spirit 
was conceived the Stamp Act — a measure which 
had no precedent, and which was in plain viola- 
tion of what the colonies understood to be the law. 
As will be shown hereafter, it was an open breach 
of a written compact which had long been in ex- 
istence between Virginia and the mother country. 

39 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

But so universal was the feeling in America that 
the Stamp Act was tyrannical, that the movement 
against it was almost simultaneous, as well as vol- 
untary and spontaneous. 

According to the historian Wheeler, North 
Carolina, eleven days before the adoption of the 
famous resolution in the Virginia burgesses, grew 
so boisterous in opposition to the Stamp Act that 
Governor Tryon had to dissolve the Legislature. 
Speaker John Ashe put the king's lieutenant on 
notice that any attempt to enforce the odious law 
would be " resisted to blood and death." 

It was not long before the British sloop-of-war, 
the Diligence, arrived in Cape Fear River, bring- 
ing a lot of the stamped paper to be sold in the 
colony. The people flew to arms, and led by Colo- 
nels Ashe and Waddell, menaced the governor's 
palace, compelled him to surrender the distributor 
of stamps, Houston, and this royal officer, being led 
to the public square, was forced to swear that he 
would make no effort to use the stamps. Having 
thus nullified an illegal attempt at legislation, the 
insurgents gave three cheers and dispersed. 

Mr. Jefferson was still pursuing his law studies 
at Williamsburg when the Virginia House of Bur- 
gesses assembled for the spring session of 1765. 

Day after day the members came and went, but 
while the Stamp Act was in the thoughts of all, no- 
body spoke out against it. Washington was there, 

40 



STAMP ACT TIMES 

but he made no sign. The Randolphs, Pendleton, 
Wythe, Bland, they were there, but they sounded 
no bugle-note of revolt. 

Three days more and the session would end— 
and Virginia would not have been heard on the 
issue which made hearts palpitate and pulses leap 
from Georgia to the remotest North. 

A gaunt, coarsely dressed countryman handed 
up a series of resolutions challenging the right of 
the British Parliament to tax the colonies at all. 

Here was revolution! 

It was one thing for James Otis and Samuel 
Adams to remonstrate against a measure which 
Great Britain had merely threatened; one thing 
for the Virginia burgesses in 1764 to remonstrate 
against anticipated legislation; it was altogether a 
different thing to rebel against the measure after 
it had been passed, to defy the law after it had re- 
ceived the royal sanction. 

What American could ever forget that historic 
scene? 

There are the resolutions written on the blank 
leaf of an old law-book. They create a sensation 
which grows into a storm of excitement as the reso- 
lutions travel to committee and back again. 

The clownish looking demagogue from the in- 
terior is scowled at, abused, threatened. He does 
not swerve an inch. When debate is in order, he 
is ready; and out of the murk of obscurity into the 

41 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

full light of history, into the lasting remembrance 
of patriotism and heroism for all time to come, 
Patrick Henry steps. Awkward at first, as he al- 
ways was, faltering in the beginning as he ever did, 
he feels his way to the road, and finds it. Then he 
no longer falters, then his manner is embarrassed 
no more. He has struck the road, his eye sees 
down it far ahead, and all the way is clear; the 
orator feels his power, glories in it as the war- 
horse does in the battle. None but the born ora- 
tor knows what the feeling is, can realize the ec- 
stasy of it, the self-forgetfulness of it. Lifted by 
his own growing enthusiasm, inspired by the same 
mysterious force which inspires others, he rises, 
rises, as in a chariot of fire. 

The deep-set gray eyes under the shaggy eye- 
brows gleam and flash; the stooped, ungainly fig- 
ure towers straight, imperial in strength and 
grace; the voice full, rounded, powerful, perfect in 
every note, high or low; the words simple, pure, 
massive, English — the best language on earth for 
human thought or passion — the golden key of all 
true orators who would unlock the Holy of Holies 
of the Anglo-Saxon heart. He was not the first 
man to give speech to the growing independence of 
thought in the American colonies. Nor did he ever 
claim to be; though it would be diflQcult to find any 
utterance, made North or South, in the court-room 
or out of it, which went further in its assertion of 

42 



STAMP ACT TIMES 

colonial right to make its own laws than did his 
argument in the Parsons cause in 1763. 

But while there had been much unofficial talk 
about colonial rights and against British encroach- 
ments, no responsible person acting officially had 
set up the standard of revolt. It was in this sense 
that Patrick Henry was the first of all American 
rebels and patriots. It was in this sense that Vir- 
ginia's legislative action was the first gun of the 
Revolutionary War. 

And with Henry there was no drawing back. 
His was not the nature to flare up into a hot 
speech, which he would proceed to qualify and re- 
frigerate the moment his passion had passed — as 
James Otis did. Whatever Patrick Henry said in 
the tempest of his oratory, he meant, and he main- 
tained. Neither in public nor in private would he 
take it back. 

" Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I his Cromwell, 
and George III " 

"Treason!" shouts Mr. Speaker Robinson, 
starting up from his chair, official vengeance in 
his eye. 

"Treason! Treason!" shout the loyal Ran- 
dolphs and all the Tory squires, outraged and in- 
dignant at the war-cry of the backwoods dema- 
gogue. 

It ivas treason, for it practically threatened the 
king's life, and a rebellion against a law! And to 

43 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

be guilty of treason was to incur swift penalty of 
fleath— death in most horrible form. How cra- 
venly an ordinary man would have cowered under 
i\rr. Speaker's eye, would have trembled at the 
furious onslaught of the all-powerful Tory land- 
lords! 

Losing neither his head nor his heart, neither 
his conrnge of conviction nor his prudence of con- 
duct, tiiis "forest-born Demosthenes" held every 
friend of freedom to his place, and every Tory 
squire at bay, by the dauntless firmness with which 
he answered the challenge: "And George III may 
profit by their example! " 

Challenged by royalists in a similar manner, 
while declaiming to the House of Representatives 
in Boston, James Otis struck his flag. The cry of 
"Treason! Treason!" unnerved him. He consented 
to erase the words of defiant patriotism, and they 
were erased. 

From Henry we shall never hear a word of 
doubt or retraction. Every time we hear his voice 
it will ring out clear and loud, a trumpet-call 
t(» itallle— the "Forward, march!" of the Revo- 
lution. 

When that epoch-making speech is done, Vir- 
ginia has spoken, and the ball of revolution has 
begun to roll. Vain is the expunging of one of 
these resolutions when the debate is over and the 
champion gone. The winged words are flying to 

44 



STAMP ACT TIMES 

the uttermost parts of the land, " aud God himself 
can not destroy the spoken word." 

In New York a written copy of the resolutions 
will be handed around on the sly; they are treason- 
able, and treason is death. 

An Irish gentleman of Connecticut will have 
much difficulty in getting a copy; but he gets it, 
and carries it to New England, where it is pub- 
lished far and wide. 

On the 8th of July the Boston Gazette will de- 
clare: 

" The people of Virginia have spoken very sen- 
sibly, and the frozen politicians of a more North- 
ern government say they have spoken treason." 

Royal Governor Bernard wrote home to Eng- 
land, the date of his letter being August 15, 1765: 
" Two or three months ago I thought that this peo- 
ple would submit to the Stamp Act. 

"Murmurs were indeed continually heard; but 
they seemed to be such as would die away. But 
the publishing of the Virginia resolves proved an 
alarm-bell to the disaffected," 

And General Gage, writing from New York in 
September, 17G5, notifies Secretary Conway, of the 
British Cabinet, that the Virginia resolutions had 
given " the signal for a general outcry over the 
continent." 

Edmund Burke, speaking in Parliament, voiced 
precisely the same opinion. 

45 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

The author of The True Thomas Jefferson 
states that these resolutions were all expunged. 
There were seven of the resolutions, five were 
passed and only one was repealed. This fifth 
resolution, having been passed by a majority of one 
or two votes, was easily rescinded when the un- 
suspecting Henry had gone home. 

One of those who listened entranced to the 
thrilling eloquence of Henry was Thomas Jeffer- 
son, who stood in the door of the lobby while the 
debate was going on. His kinsman, Peyton Ran- 
dolph, royal Attorney-General, came through the 
door exclaiming: "By God, I would have given 
five hundred guineas for a single vote!" Another 
kinsman. Colonel Peter Randolph, came to the house 
next morning and succeeded in having the bold- 
est resolution of the five expunged from the record. 

Jefferson had first met Henry during the Christ- 
mas holidays of 1759-60, when they w^ere both vis- 
iting at the house of Colonel Dandridge, of Han- 
over.^ They became friends at once. Each loved 
to mingle with the young people, to join in the 
games and sports of the season, and each played 
the fiddle.2 According to Mr. William Eleroy Cur- 

» In his True Thomas .Tefferson Mr. Curtis states that Henry was 
already a lawyer at tlie time of this first meeting, which is not correct; 
and that Henry's neighbors regarded him "as an incorrigible scamp," 
whioh is likewise untrue. 

* Mr. Curtis in the True Thomas Jefferson states that Jefferson was 
on his way to college that Christmas. Why did not Mr. Curtis read 
the letter of Jefferson to his guardian, written sixteen days after Christ- 
mas, asking permission to go to college ? 

46 



STAMP ACT TIMES 

tis, the tradition in Virginia is that these two were 
the very worst fiddlers in the colony, and that 
Jefferson was even more intolerable than Henry. 

After these Christmas frolics, Jefferson went on 
his way to college, and about three months after- 
ward received a visit from his friend who had come 
up to Williamsburg to apply for admission to the 
bar. 

Patrick had wrestled for six weeks with a sci- 
ence which was to claim five years from Jefferson. 
After a fashion, Patrick gained his license; and 
some three years later had astounded the locality 
in which he lived by his sudden exhibition of su- 
preme oratorical powers in the celebrated Par- 
sons case. With neither law nor equity on his 
side, he won a famous victory — as so often hap- 
pens in the vale of tears where special Providence 
does not appear to conduct lawsuits.^ 

His business increasing as his fame widened, 
Mr. Henry began to have cases in the General 
Court, whose sessions were held in Williamsburg; 
and whenever he came up to the capitol he would 
visit and sometimes room with his friend Jefferson.- 

* Mr. Curtis, in that True Thomas Jefferson, whicli literally swarms 
with errors, states that this Parsons case was Henry's first case, whereas 
his account-books show that he had been doing a steady business, get- 
ting many cases for two or three years before that. 

" Mr. Curtis in his True Thomas Jefferson states that Henry fre- 
quently shared Jefferson's bed for lack of money to pay a hotel bill. 
How does Mr. Curtis come to know that ? What is his authority ? 
Patrick was in full practise at the bar and his books show that his in- 
come was greater than Jefferson's. 

47 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Then came Henry's election to the House of 
Burgesses; and it is said that it was from Jef- 
ferson's room he went forth to make his speech 
against the Stamp Act. 

Mr. William Eleroy Curtis, in his True Thomas 
Jefferson (which might be truer), makes the state- 
ment that Henrj^'s famous resolutions were writ- 
ten on the fly-leaf of Jefferson's law-book, Coke 
upon Lj^ttleton. 

This is important enough to be interesting, if 
true. But is it true? How does Mr. William El- 
eroy Curtis know? 

Dr. Henry S. BaudalTs voluminous Life of Jef- 
ferson was prepared after the fullest consultation 
with the statesman's relatives and friends. Dr. 
Kandall had access to all the papers, jet Dr. Ran- 
dall makes no such statement. Jefferson's own 
memoir fails to mention it, and Henry's own writ- 
ten statement, filed away with his will, does not 
mention it. Henry declared in that document 
that he wrote the resolutions alone and un- 
aided. 

Neither does Professor Tucker, Mr. Schouler, 
Mr. Forman, or any other biographer of Jefferson 
or of Henry, mention the alleged fact. Mr. Par- 
ton, in his Life, says that Henry wrote the resolu- 
tions " on the blank leaf of an old Coke upon Lyt- 
tleton — perhaps Jefferson's own copy." 

Can it be possible that the author of the True 
48 



STAMP ACT TIMES 

Thomas Jefferson took as a fact what Parton ven- 
tured as a surmise? 



We have seen that George Wjthe thought that 
Henry was going too fast and too far; we have 
seen that Jefferson's uncles were leaders on the 
king's side. Yet, with rare independence of mind 
and courage of conviction, the young man threw off 
the influence of his mentor, Wythe, and braved the 
displeasure of his aristocratic kinsmen, the Ran- 
dolphs. From the very first, he stood shoulder to 
shoulder with Mr. Henry. 

In after life these two Virginians became ene- 
mies, personal and political; and they said many 
hard things of each other. 

Fortunately for Mr. Jefferson, the tongue, and 
not the pen, was Mr. Henry's favorite weapon; con' 
sequently the criticisms of his former friend have 
perished. Unfortunately for Mr. Henry, the favor- 
ite weapon of Mr. Jefferson was the pen, and, out- 
living his foe, he had the conclusion on him. Partly 
to Jefferson is due the almost universal impression 
that Patrick Henry was illiterate, a lawyer who 
knew no law, a sloven who would not keep ac- 
counts or read writing if he could avoid it, a patriot 
whose rise to fame was due solely to his wonderful 
gift of oratory. Compared with a finished scholar, 
such as Jefferson or Madison, Patrick Henry was 
5 49 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

illiterate; compared with George Washington he 
was not. His latest biographers make it clear that 
he had been well grounded in the elements of an 
English education, that he had made considerable 
progress in Latin and Greek, and was fairly famil- 
iar with the prominent facts of ancient and mod- 
ern history. He did keep books of account, and 
these books prove that he enjoyed a good general 
practise for two or three years prior to the Par- 
sons case. 

As the years passed on, he numbered among his 
clients some of the most intelligent and wealthy 
people in Virginia, appeared regularly in the high- 
est court, made a snug fortune at the bar and kept 
it — convincing proof that he was something more 
than an empty declaimer. 

It is true that he usually wore very plain 
clothes, and abused his mother-tongue in common 
conversation as most of us abuse it; true also that 
in his younger days he was idle, loved better to 
hunt and fish than to study his books or mind his 
store; true, likewise, that he failed as a farmer and 
as a merchant before he tried his hand at law; but 
when success of the higher sort came to him, as it 
did in the Parsons case, it gradually changed his 
habits.^ He was compelled to read, compelled to 
study, compelled to labor in the preparation for 

>.One of the parsons against whom Patrick llenry thundered was the 
Rev. James Maury— probably the same Maury who taught Jefferson. 

50 



STAMP ACT TIMES 

great trials of streugth in the court-house, on the 
hustings, and in the legislative halls. 

His debates with Edmund liandolph, James 
Madison, and Richard Henry Lee, absolutely con- 
vince the impartial mind that Patrick Henry was 
as conversant with the great principles of law and 
government as any man of his time. 

It was in 17G7 that Thomas Jefferson was ad- 
mitted to the bar.^ During the five years engaged 
in these studies, he suffered a domestic loss which 
grieved him deeply; his favorite sister, Jane, died 
in the autumn of 1705. Previous to this another 
sister, Mary, had married Thomas Boiling; in July, 
1765, his sister Martha married his friend Dabney 
Carr; and these members of the family had gone 
away to their new homes. 

In May, 17G6, he set out in a one-horse chaise to 
travel northward. Bad weather, an unruly horse, 
and swollen watercourses, filled the journey with 
adventure and hairbreadth escapes, but he finally 
reached Annapolis, where he found the people jubi- 
lating over England's repeal of the Stamp Act; 
went on to Philadelphia, where he was vaccinated 
for the smallpox; and from thence he proceeded to 
New York. 

On his route he had visited friends and college- 

' He had already been put in commission as one of the Justices of Al- 
bemarle County; and had illustrated his love of work of public useful- 
ness by raising funds, by subscription, to clear the Rivanna of obstruc- 
tions so that produce could make its way to market by water. 

51 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

mates at their homes, had made many new ac- 
quaintances, had got a better idea of American 
city life than he possessed before, and went home 
benefited by the journey. 

It was somewhere about this time that Mr. Jef- 
ferson conceived the idea of keeping those won- 
derful records, those memoranda of his thoughts 
and deeds, which excite so much amusement in 
some people, so much contempt in others. Farm 
books, garden books, pocket account-books, law- 
case books, weather books, special expenses books 
— kept scrupulously day after day, year after year, 
in the neatest methodical manner, and in writing 
beautifully readable. No matter how smoothly or 
turbulently the current of life might run; no mat- 
ter whether politics were hot or cool, elections 
favorable or unfavorable, war-clouds black or the 
heavens calm, Thomas Jefferson found time and in- 
clination to post these books until they fairly teem 
with facts — facts important, trivial, interesting, 
tedious, comical, tragical, public and private — as 
queer and miscellaneous a mass as diarist ever 
recorded. 

In Heading the Diary of Samuel Pepys we come 
across entries which preserve the date on which 
he first began to use buckles on his shoes, also the 
date on which he first wore his long-tailed coat. We 
know what day it was that he dined with his friend 

52 



STAMP ACT TIMES 

Sandwich on a turkey-pie; as well as what morning 
he breakfasted at Mrs. Harper's upon a goose. 
The reader can likewise identify the day when Mrs. 
Pepys burned her hand " dressing the remains of a 
turkey " which she and Samuel ate in the garret. 
We also know what evening it was that the family 
w^ent " to bed without prayers — it being washing 
day to-morrow." We locate the fact, even though 
we miss the connection. 

In Samuel Pepys the entry of such details in a 
diary excites no wonder; the reader smiles, passes 
on from the shoe-buckles, the goose, and the long- 
tailed coat to something really and historically im- 
portant — the reassembling of the Rump Parlia- 
ment, the coming of General Monk to London, the 
going to Holland to get King Charles, the Restora- 
tion, and the digging up of CromwelFs body in order 
that it may be hung in chains to gratify the spite 
of mean creatures, who had not dared to face him 
in his lifetime. 

But in the voluminous diaries of Mr. Jefferson 
we come upon an immense deal of triviality, and 
little else. 

If we think that it was hardly necessary for 
Pepys to make an entry of the fact that he went 
home to change his shoes and stockings, so we 
think Jefferson need not have made a note of the 
fact that the myrtle candles were out. 

53 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Pep3S rorords: "I this day left off ray great- 
skirt suit, and put on my white suit with silver lace 
coat." 

With equal gravity Jefferson jots down the fact 
that the first shad appeared in the market on the 
16th of March. 

Why should a lawyer in full practise, a scholar 
who loves books, a statesman who has the interest 
and destinies of the human race ever in his mind, 
waste ink and time to record the opinion of " Mr. 
Remsen that six cords of hickory would last a fire- 
place the winter" ? W^hy make a formal entry of 
the fact that " T. N. Randolph has had nine gallons 
of whisky for his harvest" ? Of what possible 
service could such entries be? His books are full 
of such items as these: " March the 28th, the weep- 
ing willow shows the green leaf. April 9th, aspar- 
agus came to table. April 10th, apricots blos- 
som." And so on, page after page, year after 
year. When he dropped a penny in the box at 
church on a Sunday, he entered the donation in 
his book; when he bought a pair of shoe-strings, 
or a paper of pins; or posted a letter; or got a 
shave at a barber shop; or crossed a ferry; or 
tipped a waiter, it all had to go down in the book. 
He elaborately worked out the cost of a cup of tea 
and of the sugar which sweetened it; and then wrote 
it down in liis book— carefully. Two cents was the 
cost price which he figured on his cup of tea — a 

54 



STAMP ACT TIMES 

fact which might possibly be worth knowing if 
one could always get the same variety of tea, of 
the same quality, at the same price, have it meas- 
ured in the pot for the same quantity of water, and 
sweetened with the same amount of the same 
sugar sold at the same rate. 

It is not easy to prove that all this writing in 
these books benefited the writer or posterity. They 
simply prove the bent of his mind, the peculiar turns 
taken by his love of detail, the prankish tricks his 
love of mathematics played off on him. They ex- 
pose that odd characteristic, that lack of humor, 
that prosaic angularity which was a part of his 
complex nature, and which caused his best friends 
to indulge in good-humored jokes at his expense. 
To his enemies these eccentricities were a joy for- 
ever, a source of endless caricature, exaggeration, 
and ridicule. 

During his young manhood, when his lands 
were fresh, and his negroes had not forgotten the 
teachings of his father, he no doubt cleared two 
thousand dollars per annum on his farm, as he said 
he did. But after he had been severely bitten by 
that most expensive mania, house-building, and 
after he had let the virgin soil wash away from 
his mountain farm, and after he had hired an over- 
seer, and opened his free hotel on the top of that 
mountain, the account-books did him no good, 
neither warning him of the breakers ahead nor 

55 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

teaching him how to avoid them, nor, indeed, dis- 
closing the real perils of the situation. 

Mr. Jefferson actively practised law from the 
time of his admission (1767) to August, 1774, at 
which time the pressure of his public work caused 
him to turn his unfinished business over to Ed- 
mund Randolph; and he never took it up again. 
During his first year he earned about fifteen hun- 
dred dollars at the bar. For the next four years 
his income from this source moderately and gradu- 
ally increased, it being about two thousand dollars 
in the fourth year. His executor states that the 
average earnings for the entire period of his pro- 
fessional career was three thousand dollars per 
annum. This is the period in which it is claimed 
that he cleared two thousand dollars yearly on his 
farm. Tt is certain that he increased his nineteen 
hundred acres to five thousand — a fact which does 
not necessarily mean that he ever cleared two thou- 
sand a year farming. 

A vocal defect hindered Mr. Jefferson from be- 
coming a successful advocate or public speaker; 
for if he spoke much above a conversational tone 
his voice grew husky and failed him. Yet it is said 
that he could argue a cause effectively in the court- 
house—especially to the bench. In the higher 
courts there is no doubt that he could handle his 
cases ably, for he was profoundly versed in the 
law, was thorough in preparation, and clear in the 

56 



STAMP ACT TIMES 

presentation of the strong points on his side. In 
the making of a brief, or a written argument, he 
must have been superb. The large number of 
cases in which he was employed in the general 
court proves that his professional position was 
high; and that as a practical lawyer he was a suc- 
cess — though a moderate one. He could never 
have rivaled such men as Edmund Randolph, Will- 
iam Wirt, or that greatest of American court- 
house lawyers, William Pinckney. Nor in Patrick 
Henry's province could he have rivaled Henry at 
the bar; but had he continued to labor in his pro- 
fession, there can be no doubt that as an office- 
lawyer, a consulting counsel, an associate who 
could be relied upon to exhaust the law of the case, 
and to get everything on paper, Mr. Jefferson 
would have been always in demand. 

Mr. Curtis, in his True Thomas Jefferson, feels 
constrained to account for the large amount of 
money made by this mature young lawyer of twen- 
ty-eight. His income from legal practise being, 
upon an average, three thousand dollars per an- 
num, Mr. Curtis assumes that an explanation is due 
to the reader. And the explanation which he gives 
(following the lead of Parton) is that the country 
was in a bankrupt condition, and that Jefferson fat- 
tened upon the carcass of a dead prosperity. The 
theory that lawyers thrive most when financial dis- 
tress is greatest is an old one, and, like several 

57 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

other theories, is respected solely because of its 
age. 

The most casual attention to facts will convince 
any sensible man that no such theory can be sound. 
Lawyers do the largest amount of business, and get 
the fattest fees, where business is best. There 
never was a time when larger fortunes were more 
rapidly accumulated than now, and there never 
was a time when the lawyer was so indispensible 
and so lavishly paid. Thomas Jefferson worked for 
three thousand dollars per year, Edmund Randolph 
may have earned five, William Pinckney, perhaps, 
ten, Daniel Webster an average of ten, in his best 
years. 

We know how proud he was to get the rubber 
case which yielded a fee of fifteen thousand dol- 
lars — the largest he ever earned. William Wirt 
certainly did not earn ten thousand a year. The 
country was poor, and fees were small. The life 
of the lawyer was summed up correctly when 
Webster declared that he " worked hard, lived well, 
and died ])oor." 

The country is now rich, and fees are big; and 
the lawyers whose annual incomes reach a hundred 
thousand dollars are no longer rare. Retainers of 
ten thousand dollars, fees of fifty thousand are paid 
every day in New York, Chicago, Boston, San Fran- 
cisco. Now and then some attorney who pilots a 
syndicate, organizes a trust, acts as pall-bearer to 

58 



STAMP ACT TIMES 

a dead railroad, manipulates a merger, or makes 
the Supreme Court stultify itself on the question of 
the Income Tax, will be paid a fee of one hundred 
thousand dollars, half a million dollars, or even a 
million dollars. 

The poorer the community the richer the lawyer 
— says Mr. Curtis in effect. He should know better. 
The truth is just the reverse. 



59 



CHAPTER IV 

IN THE LEGISLATURE 

Governor Fauquier died in 1767, and with the 
coming of his successor, Lord Botetourt, a new leg- 
islature was chosen. 

Thomas Jefferson offered himself to the people 
of his home county of Albemarle as a candidate, 
and was duly elected a burgess. He had con- 
formed to the custom in such cases, had personally 
canvassed for votes, had kept lunch and punch 
ready at Shadwell for hungry and thirsty electors, 
had attended at the polls, and bowed his thanks to 
those who voted for him. 

The Virginia resolutions of 1765 had created 
such a threatening demonstration on this side of 
the water that Great Britain repealed her Stamp 
Act. 

A change of ministry, however, had brought 
about a change of policy, and the Parliament had 
imposed the unpopular tax again — this time in the 
stealthier guise of duties upon imported articles, 
such as tea, glass, paper, and paint. It was simply 
a small attempt at a tariff, a very, very moderate 
charge upon goods entered at the Custom-House. 
Those who bought the goods would pay the tariff; 
those who did not like the tariff need not buy the 

60 



IN THE LEGISLATURE 

goods. The tax was not laid upon three or four 
thousand articles as it is now, but only upon half 
a dozen or so. Unless the citizen will now consent 
to wear the wardrobe of Adam and live on air, 
earth, and water, he must pay the tax. Our fore- 
fathers had only to deny themselves paper, tea, 
glass, and paint to be out of the reach of England's 
law. 

When the burgesses of Virginia met Lord Bote- 
tourt at Williamsburg, June 11, 1769, the leaven of 
1765 was permeating the whole loaf; but before 
there could be a clash between crown officers and 
popular representatives certain preliminaries had 
to be politely arranged. Lord Botetourt made his 
royal progress in his state coach from the palace 
to the capitol, where he entered the council-cham- 
ber, and summoned the burgesses to his presence. 
They had already been sworn in by two members 
of the council, and now they promenaded to the 
council-chamber, where Lord Botetourt, seated 
upon his vice-regal throne, received them inform- 
ally, and instructed them to return to their hall 
and elect a speaker. This they did; and then they 
notified the governor of the fact, who in turn sent 
his messenger to summon them once more to his 
presence. Led by their speaker, the burgesses 
once more promenaded all to the vice-regal room, 
where the speaker was formally presented to the 
governor. After some further nonsense of the ver- 

61 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

bal sort, Lord Botetourt delivered his address to 
the council and burgesses, endeavoring to talk as 
much without saying anything as — well, as an 
American President talking against the trusts. 
This i)recious address having been finished, the 
speaker begged a copy, which was furnished, and 
then the burgesses promenaded back to their room. 
Mr. speaker ascended his throne, informed the 
House that he had met the governor, and heard an 
address of which he had obtained a copy, and that 
he would now read said address to the House. And 
he did it. Then the House appointed a committee 
to draft a reply to the " speech from the throne." 
To assist the committee, the House passed some 
resolutions which were, in a general way, to 
serve as a guide to the committee. At this crisis 
Thomas Jefferson met disaster. Being named 
as one of the three to draw up the preliminary 
resolutions, he acquitted himself so well that he 
was asked to prepare the answer to the address. 
He did so, and to his mortification his draft was 
rejected. 

In the True Thomas Jefferson William Eleroy 
Curtis says that " his fine phrases " were " rejected 
by the practical burgesses, who were not accus- 
tomed to express their thought in such elegant dic- 
tion." In other words, Mr. Jefferson's paper was 
cast aside because it was too flowery, verbose, orna- 
mental. As a matter of sober fact, just the re- 

62 



IN THE LEGISLATURE 

verse was the truth. The paper was rejected be- 
cause it was too short, too plain, too devoid of 
courtly flourish. These " practical burgesses " 
thought that Jefferson had stuck too closely to the 
bare text of his resolutions, had not amplified 
enough, had not been sufficiently full of " elegant 
diction." 

Another man was named to elaborate the paper 
and to put more flourish and flower in it, which, 
having been done, the practical burgesses voted its 
adoption with great gusto. 

The courteous preliminaries having been ad- 
justed according to hoary precedent, the burgesses 
settled down to business. They at once jDassed 
sundry resolutions, the most important of which 
was aimed at the attempt of Great Britain to tax 
the colonies which were unrepresented in her Par- 
liament. 

" No taxation without representation," declared 
the burgesses. Mr. William Eleroy Curtis states 
that, after the passage of these resolutions, 
Jefferson and Washington and others spent the 
night in speculating upon what Botetourt would 
do about it. Few^ people will believe that a steady- 
nerved soldier like Washington sat up all night 
speculating as to what Botetourt would do with 
these resolutions. Especially when these resolu- 
tions carried Virginia no farther than she had 
safely gone in 1765. 

63 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

It was next day, during the usual hours of ses- 
sion, that the burgesses were summoned to the 
council-chamber, where the governor, briefly ex- 
pressing his disapproval of their resolutions, dis- 
solved them, after they had existed organized bur- 
gesses only five days. During that afternoon Will- 
iamsburg may have witnessed scenes of excite- 
ment. There was doubtless much caucusing among 
the members. For now the question was. What 
shall we burgesses do? The governor has scolded 
us as though we were naughty children. Shall 
we reply? He has told us to go home. Shall 
we go? If Jefferson and Washington, Henry and 
Lee lost sleep any night it was this night — not in 
fear, not in anxious speculation as to what the 
governor would do, but in earnest consultation as 
to what they themselves would do. 

The upshot of the consultations was that they 
resolved to hold a meeting in the long room of the 
Raleigh hotel next day. In the long room, the 
famous Apollo, they met accordingly; and they 
passed resolutions, the sum and substance of which 
was that they would boycott especially those goods 
upon which the tariff was laid, and boycott gener- 
ally all English goods which they could possibly 
do without. Eighty-eight of the late burgesses 
signed this agreement; some others refused; and 
others still were absent. This action of her repre- 
sentatives Virginia approved. At the next elec- 

64 



IN THE LEGISLATURE 

tion every man who had signed the pledge was re- 
elected; every one who had refused was de- 
feated.^ 

In the meanwhile the British Government en- 
forced the Tea-Duty Act of 1767, but had derived 
no advantage from it. Some eighty thousand dol- 
lars was the sum total of the taxes collected, and 
the expense of making the collection had been 
about the same. Governor Botetourt soon recon- 
vened the burgesses to announce the joyful tidings 
that Great Britain had decided to recede from her 
position, and to repeal the duties upon paints, glass, 
and paper. Neither Botetourt nor the burgesses 
seemed to take notice of the fact that England pro- 
posed to retain the duty upon tea. 

It was at this second session that Mr. Jefferson 
made his first effort to advance the cause of eman- 
cipation for the blacks. As the law then stood, a 
Virginian who freed his slaves was required to 
send them out of the colony. This proviso Mr. Jef- 
ferson sought to abolish. True to his lifelong 
habit, he presented his proposition through some 
one else — some one who could face a crowd, debate 
an issue, manage a parliamentary battle. Mr. Jef- 
ferson had no such gifts, and was thoroughly con- 

^ On page 124 of his remarkable book, Mr. Curtis relates the anec- 
dote of George Washington's bashfulness when complimented in open 
session by Speaker Robinson; and Mr. Curtis adds, " On the following 
day Jefferson was assigned to his first public duty." The Washington 
incident had occurred in 1759; Jefferson first entered the Legislature in 
1769. Mr. Curtis is wrong by ten years. 

6 65 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

scious of his defect. On this occasion he put for- 
ward Colonel Richard Bland, an aged, able, emi- 
nently respectable member, who was willing to 
offer Jefferson's bill. The slave-owners roused 
themselves immediately and fell upon the vener- 
able Bland and his objectionable measure with a 
fury which showed no reverence for either the man 
or the measure. 

Virginia at the time had almost as many slaves 
as free men, and how to deal with the situation 
had become a question of extreme difficulty. To 
emancipate all the negroes, and at once, was im- 
possible. Nothing less than a social, industrial, 
and political revolution would have been the re- 
sult. Immense harm even to the negroes would 
have been certain. As Jefferson himself said, 
slavery was the wolf which Virginia had by the 
ears — to hold on was dangerous; to turn loose was 
equally so. How was the problem to be solved? 
It was easy for Vermont, for example, to abolish 
slavery and to get her little squad of negroes free; 
but how could Virginia deal with her vast black 
population in any such off-hand manner? The 
races were too nearly equal. There w^ere too many 
consequences to be considered. How would the 
entire industrial system be affected by so great 
a shock? What would be the results of immedi- 
ate, unconditional freedom on the negro himself? 
Would he become the industrious, law-abiding 

66 



IN THE LEGISLATURE 

laborer; or would he prove to be a curse to himself 
and to his old masters by sinking into idleness, 
vice, crime, vagabondage? Should the free negro 
be allowed to vote? If so, upon what terms? 
Should the ignorant, semi-savage from the coast 
of Africa, where voodooism and cannibalism were 
rife, be given the same political rights as George 
Washington? Should a jabbering barbarian who 
had just been laboriously taught to hoe tobacco, 
and who profoundly believed in the powers of the 
conjure bag, be permitted to go to the polls and 
kill the ballot of James Madison? Suppose such 
privileges were granted to the free negroes, how 
would the civilization of the white race be af- 
fected — that civilization which was the result of a 
thousand years of intelligent effort? How would 
social life be influenced? 

On the other hand, suppose these privileges 
were not granted the free negroes, how long would 
it be ere the reign of the black incendiary and the 
white renegade would set in? With all that com- 
bustible material lying around — a free black popu- 
lation almost equal in numbers to the whites — how 
long would it take social and political agitators to 
set the house afire? 

Questions like these were ever present in the 
minds of the Virginians of that period; and to un- 
derstand the conduct of our ancestors we must 

67 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

place ourselves at tlieir point of view. To judge a 
slave-owner of the South, you must put yourself in 
his place. 

He had not originated slavery. He had not em- 
barked in the slave-trade. He had made vigorous 
efforts to keep the traffic out. Virginia was the 
first civilized country to denounce it; and in twen- 
ty-three separate acts her burgesses protested to 
the crown against it. But the whole world was 
committed to the system, and Virginia was power- 
less to stem such a tide. Massachusetts had been 
the first colony to give express legislative sanction 
to slavery; and New England was sincere in her at- 
tempts to make negro slaves profitable in her 
fields, just as she had been to make good slaves out 
of the Indians. It was not till her failure had be- 
come as evident as the success of her Southern 
neighbors had become exasperatingly complete, 
that the bowels of the Puritan began to compas- 
sionate the unfortunate African — who, in literal 
fact, was vastly better off in Virginia than he had 
ever been in heathen, slavery-cursed, man-eating 
Africa. The Virginian did not reproach himself 
for the sin and shame of slavery. He had no cause 
to do so. If he read his ancient histories, he saw 
the relation of master and slave reaching back to 
the very dawn of time. If he read his Bible, he 
followed the master and the slave from the Alpha 

68 



IN THE LEGISLATURE 

to the Omega of the sacred book; and amid its 
thousands of words upon its hundreds of subjects 
there was not one in which the inspired writers 
warned the misguided children of men of the sin 
and shame of slavery. And if the Virginian had 
been a prophet he would have looked forward into 
the twentieth century and seen slavery in some 
form still existing in every nation of the earth — in 
spite of Pharisee, Scribe, Sadducee, abolitionist, 
missionary, Salvation Army, Christian Church, and 
the universal brotherhood of man. 

The clear-eyed student who looks beneath forms 
to find the substance and reality of things, will be 
happily constituted, indeed, if his investigation 
does not compel him to conclude that there is more 
actual, degrading, heartless, soul-destroying serf- 
dom on this earth now than there was in the year 
1860. As far as was possible, the Virginian miti- 
gated the evils of his system. On many estates 
the life of the slave was far less toilsome, less 
racked by care and responsibility, than that of the 
debt-ridden master who owned him. The average 
negro slave was not only better off than the aver- 
age free negro, but was more securely safeguarded 
against want in sickness and old age than was 
" the poor white." Benevolence was gradually do- 
ing its quiet work; and under the influence of such 
men as Wythe, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, 

69 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

and John Randolph the numbers of the free 
negroes were ever on the increase. In 1781, Vir- 
ginia already had upward of twelve thousand free 
negroes within her borders — a number which com- 
pares favorably with that set free by legislative 
enactments in New England. 

In repealing the Stamp Act Great Britain had 
made a declaration of her right to pass laws bind- 
ing the colonies in all cases whatsoever; in 1770 
she repealed the duties on glass, paper, and paint, 
but left the duty on tea. So that at each turn of 
the contest she yielded enough to encourage oppo- 
sition and not enough to satisfy it. Nevertheless, 
the colonies, as a whole, grew quiet. Tumults al- 
most entirely ceased. New York repealed her non- 
importation act, and most of the colonies began to 
buy all sorts of British goods excepting tea. The 
great boycott was practically at an end. John 
Adams quit politics and gave his time to law. Sam 
Adams could find nobody to take an interest in his 
anti-British talk. Thomas Jefferson made record of 
the fact that " our countrymen seemed to fall into 
a state of insensibility to our situation." The stu- 
dents of Princeton put on mourning gowns, and 
" Lynch, of South Carolina, is said to have shed 
tears over what he deemed the lost cause." 

In February, 1770, while Mr. Jefferson and his 
mother were at a neighbor's house on a visit, a 
negro came running to bring the news that the old 

70 



IN THE LEGISLATURE 

home at Shadwell had been burned, the dwelling 
and all the contents. Nothing had been saved but 
a few books and the fiddle.^ 

Mrs. Jefferson and the children were put to live 
in the overseer's house, and Thomas Jefferson him- 
self went to Monticello. Upon the top of the little 
mountain he had already begun to build; and he had 
completed what afterward served as one of the 
pavilions. It had one large room on the ground 
floor, and a couple of small rooms above. Fixing 
his residence here he pushed forward the work 
on the remainder of his plan as rapidly as possible. 
Ground was cleared and leveled, stumps dug out, 
terraces made, roads constructed, lumber hauled, 
bricks molded, nails forged, rough timber dressed, 
and the walls began to rise under Jefferson's own 
directions, in accordance with his own plans, the 
work being done by his own slaves. It was a huge 
task in those days to take raw materials and un- 
skilled labor, and so manage both as to secure a 
substantially, elegantly finished house. No city 
was near from which he rould purchase those 
things he could not manufacture. Williamsburg 
was the nearest, and the distance was one hundred 
and fifty miles. Much of his material, sash, for 
example, had to be made in London. Not in one 

' Mr. Jefferson's only brother, Randolph, was weak-minded — almost, 
if not quite, an imbecile. Tradition at Charlottesville holds that it was 
Randolph .Jefferson who came running to his brother, shouting, " Tom, 
we saved your fiddle ! " 

71 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

year was the home completed — nor in ten, nor in 
twenty. It was the love-labor of a lifetime, 
changed from time to time as his ideas changed; 
and there can be no doubt that it swallowed up a 
very considerable portion of its owner's fortune. 



72 



CHAPTER V 

REVOLT IN NORTH CAROLINA 

The spirit of antagonism which was growing 
between royal officers and the people of the colo- 
nies led to a bloody crisis in North Carolina. On 
the one side was the ruling class, which seemed dis- 
posed to make the most of the opportunity to plun- 
der the taxpayers; on the other were the masses, 
who were disposed to resist local wrongs with the 
same courage which had been shown in opposition 
to the Stamp Act. The governor of North Caro- 
lina was Tryon, a bold, able, unscrupulous man. 
He was at this time squandering seventy odd 
thousand dollars in building for himself a splen- 
did palace, and taxes were increased to meet the 
heavy drains. Like master, like man; the spirit 
of extortion beginning with the governor, ran 
along down the line to the lowest bailiff. Promises 
of redress of grievances had been made, but had 
not been kept. Things were going from bad to 
worse. The discontented held meetings to " in- 
quire whether the freemen of the country labored 
under any abuse of power, and, if so, what meas- 
ures should be taken." The Regulators sprang into 
existence (1767). This was the first organized re- 
sistance to British tyranny since Bacon's glorious 

73 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

rebellion in Virginia. These freemen of North 
Carolina adopted resolutions to pay only such taxes 
as were agreeable to law and applied to the pur- 
poses therein named; and to pay no officer more 
than his legal fees. 

The North Carolina patriots were led by Her- 
man Husbands, a large landowner of Quaker an- 
cestry, related to Benjamin Franklin. There was 
no blemish upon his character, and his motives at 
this crisis were precisely the same as those which 
inspired Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams. His 
pen wrote the resolutions already mentioned, reso- 
lutions which no just government would have con- 
demned. 

Governor Tryon put Husbands under arrest, and 
dragged him off to Hillsborough. The people rose 
to his rescue and set him free. The royal officers 
collected a body of troopers, rode fifty miles after 
Husbands, seized him, and flung him into jail. The 
Kegulators ran to arms (May, 1768), but Husbands 
had been released on bond. On May 21, 1768, the 
Regulators held a general meeting and appointed 
two of their number to present an address, their ap- 
peal for justice to the governor. The paper was laid 
before the council, which decided that the alleged 
abuses did not excuse the conduct of the Regula- 
tors — which conduct, if persisted in, would amount 
to high treason. 

In the meantime the governor was willing to 
74 



REVOLT IN NORTH CAROLINA 

publish a proclamation adnionisliiiij; all royal offi- 
cers to be good. The burning hearts of jjatriots 
were soothed by the further assurance that the At- 
torney-General would jn-osecute every one of his 
brother officers who had done anything wrong. 
These soft answers failed to turn away the wrath 
of our ancestors. They had heard such talk before, 
and knew i(s value. The Regulators continued to 
assemble, io enlist their men and to train them to 
use of arms; and I lie governor raised a large body 
of troops. He ordered the Regulators to disperse, 
and demanded hostages for the appearance of Hus- 
bands to stand trial for riot. The hostages were 
refused, but the governor was told that if he would 
summon a new Assembly, ])ardon past disturbances, 
and allow the disalTiMled lo come peaceably and lay 
their grievances before him and the new Assembly, 
they would disband and would pay their taxes. 

Husbands stood his trial and was acquitted. 
Other Regulators were less fortunate; they were 
convicted, imprisoned, and made to pay fines of two 
hundred and fifty dollars each. 

The worst ofTender among the royal officers, 
fV)lonel Edmund Fanning, was tried at the same 
term of court on six distinct indictments charging 
him with extortion. He was found guilty in each 
case. What punishment was inflicted upon this 
criminal who was using his position to rob the 
poor? He was fined one penny in each case! Is it 

75 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

any wonder the people were wrought up to mad- 
ness? 

Smarting under wrongs which they had tried in 
every way to peaceably escape, they lost all confi- 
dence in the royal officers, and determined to do 
themselves that justice which was denied them by 
their rulers. 

Courts were broken up; prisoners rescued; offi- 
cers defied: violent hands were laid upon the per- 
sons of lawyers, and some of the king's learned 
attorneys were dragged from the bar and vulgarly 
beaten. Edmund Fanning was not only assaulted 
and battered, but his house demolished. 

Why, why were grievances not redressed, abuses 
abolished? 

Why should those in authority never pour that 
kind of oil on the troubled waters? 

At the close of 1770, the General Assembly met 
at Newborn. The governor's magnificent i)alace 
had just been completed, and he received the mem- 
bers therein: and he immediately demanded the 
raising of an army to put down the Regulators. 

Herman Husbands had been elected to this As- 
sembly: they expelled him. He had written for the 
Gazette an article which did not please; and this 
pretense served as an excuse for getting rid of him. 

This Legislature passed an act making it a 
crime for more than ten citizens to hold a public 
meeting "for the disturbance of the peace"; Or- 

76 



REVOLT IN NORTH CAROLINA 

ange County, which had elected Husbands, was cut 
into three new counties; and a proclamation was is- 
sued prohibiting the sale of powder, shot, or lead. 

Gathering a large force. Governor Tryon 
marched into Orange County, and the Regulators, 
with their families, fled in terror. Their crops were 
destroyed, their homes burned, and they themselves 
declared outlaws. Their property was confiscated, 
and seized. 

The bolder spirits finally mustered at Great 
Alamance Creek to await the governor's little 
army. They had no artillery, not much ammuni- 
tion, and many of them had no guns. It was a 
straggling, unorganized crowd, not an army. 

Again they prayed for the redress of their griev- 
ances, the righting of their wrongs. 

The governor's reply was that he had done all 
he intended to do; and that they must submit, pay 
taxes, and return to their homes. 

Tryon was a man of energy of character, as his 
subsequent career in New York demonstrated; and 
he felt that with his artillery and superiority of 
material and equipment, his success was certain. 
He gave the patriots one hour to consider. There 
were two thousand of these Regulators, and they 
had passed beyond the stage of wisdom. For four 
or five years the people had endured wrongs, had 
protested, had been promised reforms, and had 
been deceived. Those who oppressed them could 

77 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

neither be checked nor punished. If convicted, the 
evil-doers were let go, unwhipped of justice. Lead- 
ers of the people who rose against law-breakers 
had languished in prison, while the law-breakers, 
duly convicted in open court, escaped justice by 
reason of Tryon's protection. And now, after all 
these years of misrule, came the governor with 
arms in his hand and a one-hour limit on his tongue, 
saying to the freemen of North Carolina, " Disperse, 
submit, pay taxes, or he would fire upon them." 
No wonder the hot blood of these Anglo-Saxons 
boiled within them; no wonder that their rash re- 
ply was, " Fire and be damned! " 

Not at once did the royal troops obey Governor 
Tryon's order to begin battle. They were North 
Carolinians also, and they shrank from this brother- 
killing strife. But no promptings of humanity can 
resist military discipline; and when Tryon, in- 
flamed with anger, rose in his stirrups and shouted 
again: " Fire! Fire — on them or on me! " his troops 
opened fire upon the Regulators. 

The result could hardly be in serious doubt. 
The Regulators were broken, and they fled the field, 
leaving twenty of their number dead, besides the 
wounded and those captured. The royal forces lost 
nine killed and sixty-one wounded.^ Captain Few, 

^ These figures are tukcu from Wheeler's History of North Carolina 
and Tryon's official report. Upon what authority Prof. John Fiske 
puts the number of dead at two hundred is not apparent. Bancroft 
follows Wheeler. 

78 



REVOLT IN NORTH CAROLINA 

one of the leaders of the Regulators, was strung up 
to the limb of a tree next day without trial, and 
strangled with a rope. Others were tried for high 
treason, convicted, and put to death. 

Upon the head of Herman Husbands a price was 
set — five hundred dollars and a thousand acres of 
land! A royal proclamation authorized any citi- 
zen to shoot him on sight. But he escaped, and 
made his way to Pennsylvania. Tryon and his 
henchman, Fanning, soon went back to the North, 
their pockets full, leaving one of the fairest por- 
tions of North Carolina a picture of desolation, and 
leaving the taxpayers to groan under a heavy load 
of illegally made public debt. 

Fugitives fleeing from the misgovernment and 
the merciless persecution of this royal governor, 
Tryon, passed over the mountains and rested their 
tired feet in the pleasant valleys beyond — in the 
future Tennessee. 

Of all the colonial governors, Tryon is said to 
have been the most popular with the authorities in 
England; and yet Mr. Sydney George Fisher mar- 
vels at the lack of love shown by the colonists for 
their mother country. 

Is it true that the royal government was cor- 
rupt, oppressive? Is it true that Fanning was 
haughty, cruel, exorbitant? Is it true that he and 
the governor were but accomplices in plundering 
the people over whom they had been put? 

79 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Long after the butchery at Alamance and the 
burnings in Orange County, this official report was 
made to Lord Dartmouth in London by Tryon's suc- 
cessor, Martin: "I can assure your lordship that 
these people were grievously oppressed." 

Tryon and Fanning were Tories, despising the 
North Carolina Whigs. They had gone down there 
to make money, and they made it. 

When the Kevolutionary War broke out, they 
fought the Americans as they had done in North 
Carolina. 

Fanning, the arch-oppressor, raised a Tory regi- 
ment in New York, and after the war became a 
general in the British army and Governor of Prince 
Edward Island. 

Tryon was the author of the New York plot to 
kidnap Washington, and, if necessary, assassinate 
him. He was the soul of Tory resistance in the 
North. 

To what extent were these insurgents of 1771 
the forerunners of the men of Lexington and Con- 
cord? Remember that North Carolina had taken 
up arms to oppose the landing of the stamps; re- 
member that this insurrection had been successful. 
That was in 1765. Who can doubt that the example 
sunk deep into the hearts of the people? 

Therefore, when Tryon taxed them to build his 
extravagant palace, when officers of the law prac- 
tised extortion and fraud, when money raised for 

80 



REVOLT IN NORTH CAROLINA 

one purpose was used for another, is it any won- 
der tliat tlie people should agitate the question, 
should assemble for discussion, should pass resolu- 
tions, and should endeavor to bring popular press- 
ure to bear upon the governor? 

Listen to the declaration drawn up by Herman 
Husbands and read to the court of Orange County 
at its August session, ITGG, the year following the 
Stamp Act tumults: 

" While the Sons of Liberty had withstood the 
Lords of Parliament in behalf of true liberty, the 
officers under them ought not to carry on unjust 
oppression in the province; that in order thereto, 
as there were many evils complained of in the 
County of Orange, they ought to be redressed. If 
there be none, jealousy ought to be removed from 
the minds of the people." 

The paper went on to urge that public meetings 
should be held at places where there should be no 
liquor, to take these grave matters into consider- 
ation, to inquire w^hat evils existed, and to adopt 
methods of correcting them if any existed. 

Surely nothing could be more temperate than 
this. Here was no rash incendiary, drunk merely 
on his unruly passions. Here was an appeal to 
reason, to common sense, to facts, to sane judg- 
ment. The case w^as not even prejudiced. It was 
not dogmatically stated that wrongs did exist. 
The wrong-doers were not arraigned by name. No. 
7 81 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Herman Husbands merely declared that the people 
were complaining of wrongs, that there ought not 
to be any unjust oppression, and that if there were 
any it should be redressed. He did not seek to dic- 
tate methods of redress. That was to be left to 
the people in mass-meeting. 

When the meetings were held, and the existence 
of grievances was established, the resolution set no 
law at defiance. On the contrary, the Regulators 
pledged themselves to pay lawful fees and lawful 
taxes, and illegal fees they pledged themselves not 
to pay. Bear in mind that the great mass of the 
people in North Carolina were poor. Ready money 
was extremely scarce. The fewest number owned 
slaves. They had no big cities flourishing on com- 
merce. They had no mines and manufactures. 
They lived on small farms, in small houses, doing 
their own work, digging a hard living out of the 
ground, and having no surplus crops to bring money 
to their pockets. North Carolina, like Georgia 
and Connecticut, was almost a pure Democracy. 
Therefore, illegal taxes and exorbitant fees and 
court costs were a real hardship. A new seventy- 
thousand-dollar palace for the British governor 
seemed a monstrous abuse— as, under all the cir- 
cumstances, it was. And when Edmund Fanning, 
a royalist carpet-bagger, came down adventurously 
into their State, became the governor's pet, ran the 
fee for a marriage license up to fifteen dollars, and 

82 



REVOLT IN NORTH CAROLINA 

charged one dollar for attesting a deed officially — 
growing rapidly rich upon a system of plunder, of 
which these two instances are but examples — the 
people of North Carolina felt the situation to be in- 
tolerable. Had there been but one extortioner, had 
the abuse stopped at Tryon and Fanning, the bur- 
den might have been patiently borne, so vast is the 
capacity of the people to endure oflflcial legalized 
spoliation. But when every officer set himself to 
imitate his chiefs, it was as though a swarm of 
locusts had been sent to devour the substance of 
these poor, pitiable people. 

Their cause being just, why was their failure so 
complete? They were not skilfully led. The move- 
ment was not made general. It confined itself too 
closely to Orange County. It was not widely or- 
ganized. The more violent spirits committed too 
many excesses. The rebellion put itself in the 
wrong by its riotous attacks upon individuals and 
private property. It alarmed too many vested in- 
terests. 

Such men as John Ashe and Colonel Waddell 
went in arms to fight under the royal banner, just 
as the Randolphs, the Lees, and Washington might 
have done in Virginia had the extremists there 
taken up arms too soon. It was one thing to rise 
against Great Britain's stamp distributor; it was 
another to make war upon the home government. 

Many and many a patriotic Virginian who had 

83 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

gloried in Patrick Henry's speeches, disapproved 
his armed march upon Williamsburg in 1775 when 
Dunmore had removed the powder. Prudent, slow- 
but-sure George Washington refused to have any- 
thing to do with it, although the men of Albemarle 
assembled and called to him to lead them. Pru- 
dent Pendleton and cautious Randolph frowned 
upon the reckless audacity of Henry and his men. 
Only when success had crowned the rash move- 
ment did Patrick win praise from every tongue, 
and become the uncrowned king of Virginia. 

But, although the Regulators managed badly 
and failed, it must be owned that they were actu- 
ated by the true spirit of liberty. Theirs was the 
divine indignation which drives men to resist op- 
pression. No private grudge inflamed them, no 
sordid motive of any sort appears in their speeches, 
their resolutions, or their conduct. They stood for 
principle, for right, for honest government — that 
much, nothing more. 

Their cause was not the quarrel of an hour— it 
was the struggle of the ages, the effort of the weak 
and the downtrodden to throw off the yoke and 
break the chain. 

All remonstrance proving null, all petitions for 
relief going to naught, they stood at Alamance to 
fight, as the pioneers of liberty have aways done — 
as Hampden did, as Cromwell did. 

"Disperse, ye rebels!" cries royal officer Pit- 
84 



REVOLT IN NORTH CAROLINA 

cairn at Lexington; and because thie brave militia 
of the North stood their ground history makes 
heroes of them — most properly. 

"Disperse, or I'll fire!" shouts royal Tryon at 
Alamance four years prior to Lexington. 

" Fire and be damned! " the rebels answer back. 

Was not the spirit the same? Should not the 
historian immortalize these men also? Would he 
be much in error if he declared the patriots who 
were shot down there, and those who were hanged 
on trees and gibbets there, were the first hero-mar- 
tyrs of American independence? 

"Surrender, brave men, surrender!" cried the 
English to the Old Guard at Waterloo. 

"Go to hell!" (or w^ords more unprintable) 
shouts the dauntless Cambronne, while the Old 
Guard draws back its iron squares, muskets bla- 
zing along its every side as night falls upon them 
and upon France. 

And history says " Sublime! " And it was sub- 
lime, memorable to the end of the world. 

But in what essential respect were these men 
of Alamance less brave when they looked into the 
muzzle of the guns and sternly shouted back to 
Tryon's challenge, "Fire and be damned!"^ 

* A voluminous History of the American People has recently been 
published, consisting of a serried array of pictures, maps, plans, fac- 
similes, rare prints, photographs of old documents, handbills, scraps of 
ancient newspapers, and quite a lot of other things raked out of plun- 
der rooms, museums, and curiosity shops. Incidentally there is consid- 

85 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

erable reading matter whose author is Dr. Woodrow Wilson. There 
are five bulky volumes of this stuff, and on p. 164 of vol. ii the learned 
President of Princeton finds space for one sentence on the rebellion in 
North Carolina. Think of it! Nearly two thousand pages of alleged 
history and just one short sentence to the tragic chapter in the story of 
the South ! And what is that one sentence ? 

" In North Carolina there was next year a sudden blaze of open re- 
bellion against the extravagant exactions of William Tryon, the adven- 
turer who was royal governor there, and only blood extinguished it." 

Cold, cold is the pen which thus traces the heart-breaking struggles 
of a gallant people toward their liberties. 

The "sudden blaze" had lasted more than three years; the "open 
rebellion " was resistance to armed invaders who were laying waste the 
crops and burning the homes of the people. 

The battle of Alamance, where three thousand men fought aud artil- 
lery was used, is not so much as mentioned in Dr. Woodrow Wilson's 
book. 

The Boston street row, where a handful rioted and three were killed, 
not only gets chronicled under its historic name of the " Boston Massa- 
cre," but occupies six pages with illustrative matter and half a page of 
Dr. Wilson's textl 



86 



CHAPTER VI 

MARRIAGE AND MONTICELLO 

In common with the vast majority of young 
men, Mr. ^Tefferson had known what it was to fall 
in love with handsome girls. At college he had 
tenderly nursed a passion for a sweetheart or two, 
and while he was studying law" he had been sorely 
smitten. Just how many of these adventures the 
young man had weathered before he met the 
charming Widow Skelton is not clear, but there 
were several. How far he had gone in the direc- 
tion of formal offers and pledges is likewise uncer- 
tain. Letters written to his bosom friend, John 
Page, indicated that he was deeply involved with 
a Miss Burwell, who was one of the beauties with 
whom he danced in the Apollo room of the Raleigh. 
If he proposed to her at all, it would seem that his 
offer was cautious — ^conditioned upon his making a 
three-year tour of Europe. If he really asked the 
lady's hand in such a way, he was rejected, for Miss 
Burwell, preferring a man who was ready, accepted 
Mr. Ambler and married him. 

But the young, handsome, prospectively wealthy 
widow, Martha Skelton, caught his roving fancy 
in 1770 and held it. She was the childless widow 

87 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

of Bathurst Skelton, and the daughter of John 

Wayles, a lawyer who owned an immense estate 

in land. For two years the courtship lasted — 

Jefferson's fiddle and the widow's spinet making 

sweet music together much of the time. They 

played together, they sang together, greatly to the 

discomfort of other suitors who had no fiddles and 

no voice for song. It is related that two of these 

suitors, each believing there was hope in the old 

land yet, approached the widow's door one day, 

upon marital propositions bent, when their ears 

were invaded by sounds from within the house — 

sounds which, upon closer attention, seemed to be 

those of human voices, male and female, singing 

in harmony to violin and spinet. These belated 

suitors listened and looked, looked and listened; 

and the more they considered the sights and the 

sounds within the house, the deeper became their 

conviction that the harmony was too sweet to be 

interrupted. So they silently stole away — leaving 

Jefferson in possession of the field and of the fair. 

On New Year's day, 1772, Thomas Jefferson and 

Martha Skelton were married, at the residence of 

Mr. John Wayles, near Williamsburg. In his 

faithful account-book, the bridegroom itemized the 

expenses, including tips to servants and pay to 

the musicians. He set down the amount he paid 

the parson who officiated, and also how much 

of the sum he borrowed back from the parson that 

88 



MARRIAGE AND MONTICELLO 

same evening. The groom had been so free with 
his purse, feeing two clergymen, tipping quite a 
lot of servants, and the fiddlers who furnished the 
music, that he probably ran short of cash, hence 
his recourse to the parson. The frequent absence 
of ready money among wealthy people in those 
days would seem to have been shown in one of his 
entries in the faithful account-book. He notes that 
he loaned the Widow Skelton a small sum of money 
two days before the wedding. 

There were joyous festivities at " The Forest," 
the home of JNIr. Wayles, the nuptials being cele- 
brated in the old-fashioned w^ay, and the young 
couple spent some days there afterward; but they 
were eager to be together in their own house, and 
they soon set out for Monticello. Snow was on the 
ground, and during the journej' a storm set in. The 
road soon became impassable and they were forced 
to leave their carriage at a friend's house, and to 
mount the horses. The last eight miles were passed 
in this manner and it was far into the night when 
they had made good the ascent of the little moun- 
tain and stood at their own door. 

The negroes had long since given them up, 
and had gone to their cabins to sleep. No lights 
cheerily gleamed welcome to the bride; no voices 
greeted her; wintry midnight wrapped the solitary 
pavilion with " a horrible dreariness." But they 
were young, they were happy, they were sufficient 

89 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

unto themselves; a light was soon struck, a half- 
filled bottle of wine found, and the best of the situ- 
ation was soon made by even-tempered Thomas and 
his winsome bride. Mr. James Parton — wonderful 
writer in his way — suggests that they spent the re- 
mainder of the night reading Ossian.^ 

Mr. Jefferson's marriage was one of the most 
successful known to biographical literature. In 
the harmony of the relation between himself and 
wife there never seems to have been a discord. No 
shadow ever fell between them chilling their per- 
fect, trustful devotion. She was, and she contin- 
ued to be, his ideal of a woman, his pride and joy as 
a wife, an inspiration, a helpmeet, the good angel 
of the fireside. She was beautiful; with luxuriant 
auburn hair, brilliant complexion, lustrous hazel 
eyes. In person she was above the medium height, 
exquisitely formed, slender, graceful. On horse- 
back, in the ballroom, in the parlor she com- 
manded admiration; she sang sweetly and played 
well on spinet and harpsichord. She was fond of 
books, her education was good, and she conversed 
agreeably. She was warm-hearted, impulsive, 
frank, and loyal. And it is said that she was a 
good housekeeper. 

' Mr. Curtis with characteristic inaccuracy, but with an eye to the 
comfort of the younj^ couple, allows them to complete their journey in 
the carriage. But Mr. Curtis is not the merciful man who is merciful 
to his beast, for he compels one, horse to pull the carriage loaded with 
two people up the steep mountainside through a three-foot snowdrift. 
Such cruelty to animals should not go unpunished even in books. 

90 



MARRIAGE AND MONTICELLO 

Mr. John Wayles died in 1773, and Mr. Jeffer- 
son inherited from him, as his wife's part of her 
father's estate, about forty thousand acres of land 
and one hundred and thirty-five slaves. The Nat- 
ural Bridge was on one of the parcels of this 
Wayles land. Mr. Jefferson had got nineteen hun- 
dred acres of land from his father's estate, and 
about thirty slaves. At the time of his marriage 
(1772) he had increased his property to five thou- 
sand acres and about fifty slaves. In his Memoir 
he states his belief that the net share of John 
Wayles's estate which he received in right of his 
wife was about equal to his own estate. On the 
contrary, one who follows the story of the John 
Wayles land, encumbered as it was with the John 
Wayles debts, will reach the conclusion that had 
Mr. Jefferson declined to touch a foot of it, he 
would have been better off. The encumbrance 
amounted to nearly nineteen thousand dollars (not 
thirteen thousand dollars, as Mr. Curtis states). 
Had he sold off part of it then to settle the debt, 
he might have saved a handsome property — quite 
as much realty as he could profitably manage. But 
for one reason or another, Mr. Jefferson did not 
bother himself about this British debt, and the 
holders thereof, getting a good interest, were not 
pressing the claim. So it rocked along, year after 
year, while Mr. Jefferson was rearing that ideal 
home at heavy expense, and was indulging his taste 

91 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

for fine horses, ornamental gardening, and land- 
scape effects. 

It was not till 1776 that he bestirred himself 
about these debts. He then sold land to the 
amount of about twenty thousand dollars, enough 
to wipe out the claim; but he sold on credit. When 
he offered to cancel the Wayles encumbrance with 
the notes which he had taken for the land, the 
agent of the creditors naturally refused them. 

Mark the sequel. Mr. Jefferson had sold at 
gold and silver values; time passed, and the col- 
onies, struggling for dear life with Great Britain, 
issued paper money, and Mr. Jefferson got two and 
a half cents on the dollar for his wife's good land! 

One Virginia Legislature invited British debtors 
to pay what they owed into her treasury, promis- 
ing that Virginia would protect the debtors from 
the British creditors. Mr. Jefferson deposited his 
paper money accordingly. But another Virginia 
Legislature thought differently on this subject; and 
the State issued scrip to Mr. Jefferson in lieu of his 
paper money. With this scrip Mr. Jefferson bought 
himself a new overcoat. Thus he had exchanged 
twenty thousand dollars' worth of his land for one 
coat. 

In spite of all that his eulogists say for him in 
this behalf, it is but too glaringly apparent that he 
owed all his losses to his original blunder in deed- 
ing away his land before he got his money. In 

92 



MARRIAGE AND MONTICELLO 

1787 and iu 1792 he again sold off land to pay this 
British debt, to which had now accrued an accumu- 
lation of interest. But land values were low, the 
country not having recovered from the war, and 
the proceeds of these sales were insufficient to re- 
move the encumbrance. In his last years he was 
still staggering under those British debts, as we 
shall see hereafter. 



93 



CHAPTER VII 

THE NAVIGATION ACTS 

The navigation acts, by means of which Great 
Britain had been trying to " protect " her infant 
industries at the expense of the American colonies, 
were so intolerably unjust that they had systemat- 
ically disobeyed. In one way or another, New 
England had outwitted her remote mother coun- 
try, and had established a thriving commerce with 
many foreign marts. Ventures in the French 
West Indies, ventures with the Dutch, ventures 
with the far African coast, went forward briskly 
in spite of England's protective laws. Perhaps 
there had never been a time when molasses from 
the West Indies was made into a larger supply of 
New England rum, and when this Puritan rum 
yielded larger returns in negroes from the jungles 
of Africa. In God's own mysterious way, these 
Yankee smugglers were doing a great work. First 
of all, they were feathering their nests in bleak 
New England with soft layers of Jason's golden 
fleece. Secondly, they were lifting the savage 
black from his environment of slavery, voodooism, 
and cannibalism, to put him in a state of bondage 
tempered by humanity— putting him where he 
might some day step within the radiant gates of 

94 



THE NAVIGATION ACTS 

civilization, bearing within him the new heart of a 
Christian. Let no passionate lover of the black race 
revile with reckless vehemence those smugglers, 
who, in a roundabout way, swapped molasses for 
negroes. The profits of the white trader were but 
small and perishable; the benefits to the uncouth, 
jabbering, primitively savage negro were as large 
as the opportunities of civilization, and as perma- 
nent as the Christian's reward in time and eternity. 

Great Britain, noting the growth of the mer- 
chant marine of her colonies, and viewing with 
great dissatisfaction her own loss of revenues, de- 
termined to enforce the navigation laws. Hitherto 
she had not done so because of the fact that her 
hands were tied. Wars with Prance, wars with 
Spain, entanglements here and complications yon- 
der, had diverted her attention from the American 
colonies. 

Besides, it would have been unwise for her to 
embroil herself with her own kith and kin, particu- 
larly as such a hostile movement against the colo- 
nies might have thrown them into the open arms 
of France. Her ancient enemy would have been 
but too glad to give a vigorous push to that thorn 
in England's side — as she did at the very earliest 
opportunity. 

But in 1772 our mother country had no war 
upon her hands. And now was her time to deal 
with those smugglers. Nothing was to be feared 

95 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

from France which lay shamed, exhausted, and 
inert under the feet of a harlot-ruled Bourbon 
king. He had lost to England an empire in Hin- 
dustan, an empire in Canada. His European in- 
fluence was gone, his vast Louisiana territory was 
gone, his courtier-led, ill-provided armies had been 
stupidly generaled and ingloriously beaten by 
everybody everywhere. 

In 1772, the Gaspee, of eight guns, with Lieu- 
tenant Dudingston for commander, was policing 
Narragansett Bay, to enforce the British naviga- 
tion laws. Dudingston was one of those conscien- 
tious officials who make themselves unpopular 
with law-breakers. He was likewise one of those 
martinets who are not loved even by the law-abid- 
ing. He stopped all sorts of vessels at all sorts 
of times, and with an exasperating impartiality — 
mixing and mingling the guilty and the innocent in 
a manner which nobody liked. It being his duty to 
search vessels for contraband goods, he searched 
them all; for he was not one of those gifted mor- 
tals who could tell a criminal by looking at his face. 
If Dudingston boarded a vessel and found contra- 
band, the smuggler was angered; if contraband 
was not found, the honest trader was wroth. 
Dudingston, therefore, became a most unpopular 
man, not through any fault of his own, but because 
of the protective system of which he was merely 
the executive officer. When one of our custom- 

96 



THE NAVIGATION ACTS 

house people opens a lady's trunk and rummages 
about among her undergarments, frequently hold- 
ing them up to irreverent view, or scattering 
them around in disorder, it is the system, not the 
man, whom all decent folks loathe and detest. 

When a French officer of the customs ever 
so firmly requires the Frenchwoman to raise her 
skirts and show her stockings, the search being for 
contraband which may be concealed in those stock- 
ings, it is not the officer himself who is the brute. 
The guilty men whom all should despise are the 
greedy protectionists who demand the law, and the 
cowardly politician who gives it to them. 

Dudingston's career in the bay was brief and 
not glorious. He seems to have been elaborately 
entrapped. At any rate, he received a sort of 
dare from the little, swift-sailing packet which 
plied between Newport and Providence; and he 
gave chase. The packet led him twenty-three miles, 
ran in close on Narragansett Point where the 
water was shallow, and the guileless Dudingston, 
hot in pursuit, ran his heavier vessel aground. 
There he stuck, hard and fast. The packet fin- 
ished the remaining seven miles to Providence 
safely, and at sunset was in her berth. 

The captain of the packet was thoughtful 

enough to tell his news without delay. In ever so 

short a time all Providence knew that the odious 

Dudingston was aground seven miles off, and that 

8 97 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

the rising tide would not release him till three 
o'clock next morning! Such luck was too good to 
be thrown away. 

The captain of the packet had no sooner told 
the prominent merchant, Mr. Brown, than the mer- 
chant told one of the captains who was in his serv- 
ice; and this captain was seen to hurry off, wear- 
ing a pleasant expression of countenance. Soon 
a drum was heard in the streets, and then a voice 
proclaiming the forlorn situation of the Gaspee. 
Cordial invitation was called out to all citizens 
who would like to bear a hand in the destruction 
of the Gaspee to meet at Savage's tavern at first- 
dark. The summons was gratefully obeyed, and 
by nine o'clock eight boats, manned by the repre- 
sentative citizens of the town, were rowing toward 
the Gaspee. 

At midnight they reached the British vessel, 
surprised the one sailor who was on the watch; 
shot the lieutenant who came hurrying to the deck 
in his night-shirt, boarded the ship, and easily mas- 
tered the leaderless, half-awake, and wholly unpre- 
pared British sailors. 

Landing the captives on shore, where every 
care was taken of the wounded Dudingston, the 
assailants set fire to the Gaspee, and by sun-up she 
was a smoking hulk; while the daring men who 
had boarded her were rowing home to breakfast 
and congratulations. 

98 



THE NAVIGATION ACTS 

The English Government was deeply stirred, for 
the burning of the Oaspee was an overt act, fla- 
grant and defiant, of premeditated high treason. 
Who did it? That was the only question of doubt. 
Proclamations, offering large rewards, were issued 
without results. Royal commissioners were ap- 
pointed to investigate, and troops were put at their 
service to assist them in bringing the culprits to 
punishment. Again there w^ere no results; inves- 
tigation failed to identify the guilty. Parliament 
lost its head, and passed an act to punish with the 
death j^enalt}^ any person who should destroy any 
object belonging to an English war-vessel — an act 
so general in its terms that it could have been held 
to embrace the most trifling article of ship furni- 
ture, equipment, or naval uniform. Worst of all, 
the persons accused were to be sent to England 
for trial. 

Mr. Sydney George Fisher says that " it is diffi- 
cult to see how" the government could have been 
more conciliatory and forbearing." 

When the Virginia Assembly met in the spring 
of 1773, the Gaspee incident, the commission of in- 
quiry which had been created, and the act of Par- 
liament which threatened the entire citizenship of 
America with loss of trial by jury in the American 
courts, had rearoused the spirit of resistance to 
Great Britain. The younger members of the 
House, Patrick Henry, the two Lees, Dabney Carr, 

99 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Thomas JeffersoD, and one or two others, broke 
away from the more conservative counsels of the 
older leaders, held private meetings apart, and 
mapped out an aggressive policy. Richard Henry 
Lee proposed the creation of a committee of cor- 
respondence, and Jefferson reduced the plan to 
writing. Dabney Carr was made their spokesman 
to the House, and on March 12, 1773, in a 
speech of eloquence and power, the young tribune 
moved the famous resolutions which were adopted 
unanimously, and which caused Governor Dun- 
more to dissolve the House. These resolutions, 
citing what had taken place in Rhode Island and in 
Parliament, proposed a Standing Committee of Cor- 
respondence and Inquiry to obtain information of 
all proceedings of Parliament in regard to the colo- 
nies, to keep up and maintain a correspondence 
and communication with the other colonies, and to 
report from time to time to the House. This com- 
mittee consisted of the Speaker, Peyton Randolph, 
Robert C. Nicholas, Richard Henry Lee, Edmund 
Pendleton, Patrick Henry, Dabney Carr, Archibald 
Gary, and Thomas Jefferson.^ 

The dispute as to whether Massachusetts or 
Virginia should have the credit of organizing the 

' The True Thomas Jeiferson represents the secret meetings of the 
younger members as being held in 1772, and George Washington is 
named as one of the group. The meetings were not held in 1772 and 
Washington was not one of the group. Washington did not get left 
by the procession, but he did not lead it. Henry was the real leader. 

100 



THE NAVIGATION ACTS 

revolutionary movement may be left where Ban- 
croft put it: 

" Virginia laid the foundation of our Union. 
Massachusetts organized a province. Virginia 
promoted a confederacy." 

Brilliant Dabney Carr! We see him here at his 
best, at his highest. We see him unfurl the flag of 
union, see him on a pinnacle of patriotism from 
which he surveys every colony, planning for all, 
hoping for all, inspiring and uniting all. The warm 
impulse of brotherhood opens his arms to the 
North as well as to the South; his rapt vision takes 
in the future as well as the i)resent and the past. 
" The cause of one, the cause of all," is the gist 
of his speech and the pith of his plan; and while 
Rhode Island has touched the chord, the music is 
that of union — union of hearts and of hands. His 
last speech and his best. His one great appear- 
ance in a national role; his almost unconscious 
placing of the corner-stone of the Republic! We 
see him here with the radiance of inspiration upon 
his handsome face, the clarion call of heroic pa- 
triotism on his lips; we shall see him no more at 
all. It was only yesterday, as it were, that Jeffer- 
son saw him in his " very small house, with a table, 
half a dozen chairs, one or two servants," yet the 
happiest man in the universe. For Martha Jeffer- 
son, his devoted young wife, was by his side, and 
on his knee his little boy. " He speaks, he thinks, 

101 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

he dreams of nothing but this young son. Every 
incident in life he so takes as to render it a source 
of pleasure." Independent of riches; contented in 
his poverty; happy in his wife and child; studious, 
but no recluse; ambitious, but in no feverish haste 
to rise; patriotic and earnest, but not morbidly in- 
tense; here he was, in 1770, a philosopher whose 
healthy enjoyment of life amid comparative pri- 
vations excited generous admiration in all who 
knew him. Thirty-five days after he laid the cor- 
ner-stone of what was to be the greatest of all re- 
publics, death darkened that small house where he 
had been so unenviously happy, draped the poor 
wife in the weeds of widowhood, and to the lips of 
his little children brought the wail of orphanhood. 
He was only thirty years old — died in the very 
glory of young manhood, died when his readings 
and his studies, his hopes and his plans and his 
dreams seemed just to be leading forward to the 
harvests of steadied efforts. 

A lost leader! Yet it was his to speak the 
word that lives, to do the work that is imperish- 
able, to set the example which is an inspiration for 
all the years to come.^ 

The Virginia Committee of Correspondence met 
the day after the dissolution of the House and 
began its labors. They despatched a copy of their 

' In his five-volume History of the American People, Dr. Woodrow 
Wilson finds space for Dabney Carr's name— just the bare mention of 
his name. The reader is told absolutely nothing about him. 

102 



THE NAVIGATION ACTS 

resolutions aud a circular letter to the other colo- 
nies, requesting the appointment of persons to 
communicate with the Virginia committee. When 
each colony should act upon this appeal and ap- 
point its committee, and these thirteen committees 
should begin to consult, mutually agree, and act in 
concert, confederation would have taken place. 
It would only remain for the committee to meet in 
general conference for a congress to have been 
created. 

That huge corporation, the British East India 
Company, being in financial distress, its directors 
came to Parliament begging relief — it being a pe- 
culiarity of huge corporations to consider govern- 
ment as having been instituted for their own 
special behoof. Parliament, as is usual in such 
cases, gave the corporation what it wanted, reliev- 
ing it of tea duties, in order that it might sell tea 
in America cheaper than even the smugglers would 
care to sell it. Behold, then, the ships of Great 
Britain bringing over the celebrated tea! 

On December 2, 1773, the London appeared at 
Charleston, with two hundred and fifty-seven 
chests of tea. Charleston became excited. A 
mass meeting was held; resolutions were adopted; 
the consignees of the tea were asked to resign. 
They did so amid great applause. A committee was 
formed to manage the opposition of the people to 
the landing of the tea. 

103 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

No consignees calling for the London's tea, cus- 
toms officers seized and stored it in the cellar under 
the Exchange, where it lay until 1776, when it was 
sold under legislative direction and the proceeds 
applied to public purposes. 

The statement so often made, by Bancroft and 
others, that the tea was stored in damp cellars, 
where it rotted, is not correct Even Mr. Sydney 
George Fisher, writing The True History of the 
American Revolution, heedlessly follows the leg- 
end of the damp cellar. 

Dr. Woodrow Wilson, scenting danger, stops 
at the word " stored " — leaving the final fate of the 
luckless tea to the imagination of the reader. 

At Philadelphia a tea-ship hove in sight, a mass- 
meeting was held, a committee was appointed, and 
this committee managed so well that the vessel 
sailed back to England. 

The same thing happened in New York, and also 
at Portsmouth, N. H. 

In Boston, however, the consignees of the tea 
refused to resign, and the town was soon rocking 
with excitement. Once more Sam Adams was in 
his element. 

On the night of the 16th of December, 1773, 
some forty or fifty patriots, prudently screening 
their patriotism behind the war-paint of Mohawk 
Indians, wearing blankets like Indians, carrying 
hatchets like Indians, war-whooping like Indians, 

104 



THE NAVIGATION ACTS 

boarded the unresisting tea-ships, burst the help- 
less boxes, and emptied the contents into the sub- 
missive ocean. 

The value of the cargoes destroyed in this man- 
ner was nearly eighty thousand dollars. 

Great Britain's answer to the challenge was 
prompt; she closed the port of Boston, a step which 
meant ruin and almost starvation to hundreds, per- 
haps thousands, of innocent persons. 

This measure of retaliation was to go into ef- 
fect June 1, 1774. 

The spring session of the Virginia Assembly 
convened while the country was agitated by news 
of what was happening in Boston. Messengers 
sent by the Massachusetts committee came riding 
into Williamsburg, bringing full details from the 
North; and the two great sections were now able 
to act in concert. 

Again the younger members of the Virginia 
House took the lead, Henry, Jefferson, Richard 
Henry Lee, and Francis Lightfoot Lee. 

These ardent tribunes believed that nothing 
would prove so effectual in arousing and uniting 
the people as the naming of June 1st as a day for 
fasting and prayer. 

Usually it pleased Mr. Jefferson very much to 
draw up papers. He delighted in it; he was pro- 
ficient in it; he never tired of it. But for once he 
was puzzled. The drawing up of devotional papers 

105 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

was not where his strength lay. His flowing pen 
and creative faculty failed him sadly. Behold him, 
therefore, rummaging an old English book, full of 
Puritan forms, hunting about for a style, pious, 
formal, scriptural — which would suit for June 1, 
1774, when Virginia was going to fast at, preach 
against, and pray for its king — George III. 

After some difficulty Mr. Jefferson " cooked 
up " a resolution which he thought would answer, 
put it into the hands of the venerable and religious 
Mr. Nicholas, and that gentleman offered it to the 
House. It passed, of course, and June 1st was ap- 
pointed as the day upon which Virginia should 
fast, pray, and humiliate herself in the hope that 
Heaven would turn the hearts of king and Parlia- 
ment to moderation and justice. 

Lord Dunmore knew well enough what all this 
parade of piety meant. He recognized it as an- 
other method of agitating and uniting the people 
against Great Britain. 

Hence he again dissolved the House, and again 
the members assembled at the Raleigh to consult, 
and to adopt measures denouncing the aggressive 
methods of Great Britain; and, declaring that an 
attack on one colony was an attack upon all, they 
instructed their Committee of Correspondence to 
confer with the other colonies on the expediency 
of holding a general annual Congress. They fur- 
ther agreed that a convention should be held at 

106 



THE NAVIGATION ACTS 

Williamsburg on August 1st, so that if the other 
colonies agreed to the proposition for a Congress, 
Virginia could appoint her delegates thereto. 

Mr. Jefferson was chosen to the House of Bur- 
gesses, and also to the convention. On his way to 
attend this lie was stricken down by a sudden and 
painful illness, but he forwarded a lengthy paper, 
which was afterward well known in England, as 
well as in America, under the name of A Summary 
View of the Rights of British America. 

In this paper, as in the Albemarle Instruc- 
tions, Mr. Jefferson boldlj' advanced to the propo- 
sition that the colonies were not subject to any 
legislative power save their own; "that the Brit- 
ish Parliament has no right to exercise authority 
over us." 

This was going far beyond Otis, Henry, Wash- 
ington, and Lee. In fact, it was far in advance of 
any position Virginia was yet ready to take; and Mr. 
Jefferson's paper had no immediate influence upon 
current affairs. It is a very lengthy paper; in tone 
and tenor very much like the Declaration of In- 
dependence. In force, vigor, terseness, reach of 
thought, it surpasses the famous Declaration. It 
has all the wisdom of the mature scholar and all 
the force of the youthful tribune. 

" From the very nature of things every society 
must, at all times, possess within itself the sover- 
eign powers of legislation," hence royal governors 

107 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

had no right to call legislatures together and to 
dissolve them at will. 

" Kings are the servants, not the proprietors of 
the people." For writing lines less bold than this, 
Sydney lost his head. 

i' The great principles of right and wrong are 
legible to every reader." 

" The whole art of government consists in being 
honest." 

" Only aim to do your duty, and all mankind 
will give you credit where you fail." 

" Deal out to all equal and impartial right." 

" Let those flatter who fear; it is not an Amer- 
ican art." 

" A free people, claiming their rights as de- 
rived from the laws of nature, and not as the gift 
of their chief magistrate." 

The king " has no right to land a single armed 
man on our shores." 

For the year 1774 this was daring of high de- 
gree, and we are not surprised to learn that on the 
black list of the British Cabinet Thomas Jeffer- 
son's name was entered. 

In the True Thomas Jefferson Mr. Curtis 
meekly follows the lead of the old Federalist wri- 
ters, who used to try to cast odium upon the Jeffer- 
son principles by saying that he learned them in 
revolutionary France. 

If the student cares enough about the question 
108 



THE NAVIGATION ACTS 

to make it a matter of research, and will read Mr. 
Jefferson's Summary View, his various letters, and 
state papers, previous to the French Revolution, 
he will find every principle Jefferson afterward 
professed, every principle now classed as Jeffer- 
sonian. 

The day of fasting and prayer having been 
held, political sermons preached, and his Majesty 
King George III prayed for in a seditious, if not 
treasonable, manner — to the intense displeasure 
of Governor Dunmore — the cause of rebellion was 
greatly advanced, and the delegates to the conven- 
tion carried with them to Williamsburg the con- 
viction that Virginia was about ready to back them 
up in any course, no matter how radical. 

This convention of August 1, 1774, was a purely 
voluntary and revolutionary body, yet it merely 
repeated the old principle that the rights and priv- 
ileges of their fellow subjects in Great Britain be- 
longed also to the colonists. The call for a general 
Congress having been favorably received by the 
other colonies, the convention proceeded to elect 
delegates, Peyton Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, 
George Washington, Patrick Henry, Richard 
Bland, Benjamin Harrison, and Edmund Pendle- 
ton. 

During that summer of 1774 Boston suffered, 
and the heart of all America sympathized with her. 

109 



LIFE AND Tl^MES OF JEFFERSON 

The port closed, commerce dead, thousands were 
suffering for the necessaries of life. 

"The cause of Boston is the cause of us all." 
Boston must be fed. From every quarter aid is 
sent. New England gives, New York and Penn- 
sylvania give, the South gives. 

North Carolina sends food by the ship-load; 
Maryland sends three thousand bushels of corn, be- 
sides pork and bread and flour; Virginia sends ten 
thousand bushels of grain and money by the thou- 
sand; South Carolina and Georgia send cash and 
rice; verily there was brotherly love in those days. 

So powerful was the sentiment of loyalty to the 
common cause that when Anthony Stewart, of Bal- 
timore, faithless to his non-importation pledges, 
brought over on his brig, the Peggy Stewart, sev- 
enteen casks of tea, the public feeling against 
those concerned ran so high that they made hum- 
ble apologies, renewed their boycott pledges, and 
as evidence of good faith, burned the tea. To set 
matters right beyond all peradventure, Stewart 
(on the advice, it is said, of Charles Carroll, of Car- 
rollton) set fire to his vessel, the Peggy Stewart, 
and destroyed it. With his own hands he applied 
the torch, and tradition says that his daughter, 
Peggy, sat in the piazza of her father's house, look- 
ing on, while her namesake was being offered as a 
voluntary offering to disarm the wrath of indig- 
nant patriotism. 

110 



THE NAVIGATION ACTS 

" Peggy Stewart's Day," the 19th day of Octo- 
ber, was made a legal holiday in Maryland, and re- 
mains so to the present time. 

The professor of history in Harvard University, 
Edward Channing, has published A Students' His- 
tory of the United States, his aim being, one would 
suppose, to attain especial and critical accuracy. 
On page 180 of his book he classes the burning of 
the Peggy Stewart with that of the Gaspee, men- 
tioning the two as " deeds of daring." 

It is painful to see learned professors, who write 
students' histories, going astray in this artless 
style. Anthony Stewart burned his little ship be- 
cause he was afraid of his neighbors; and to class 
his act as a " deed of daring " comparable to the 
audacity of those who burned the Oxaspee, is not the 
especially and critically accurate manner in which 
a students' history should be prepared by a Har- 
vard professor of history. 

In 1774, Dunmore led a large expedition against 
the Indians into the Ohio country, where mutual 
outrages had at length brought on a state of war. 
A pitched battle was fought on the Great Kana- 
wha by the Americans under General Lewis and 
the confederated Indians under the famous chief, 
Cornstalk. The red men were repulsed, and while 
their losses had not been heavy, they lost heart, 
and sued for peace. 

The Americans were eager to press the advan- 
111 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

tage they had gained, but Lord Dunmore, who had 
done no fighting, decided to put an end to the war. 

To the conference which was held between the 
governor and the Indian chiefs, one of the leading 
warriors refused to come. This was Logan, a 
headman of the Mingoes. At the commencement 
of the trouble nine of the women and children of 
his family had been butchered in cold blood by an 
officer named Greathouse; and Logan, who had al- 
ways been a noted friend to the whites, refused to 
forgive or forget the crime. He w^as willing that 
the war should end, for he had taken his revenge, 
but he would not make friends. 

Pressed by repeated messages to attend the 
conference, he finally sent the reply which was pre- 
served by Jefferson in his Notes on Virginia, and 
which so many thousands of American schoolboys 
have spoken. " Logan's speech " created a deep 
impression even in the rude camp where back- 
woodsmen, with guns in their hands, first heard it; 
and it excites mournful interest yet. 



112 



CHAPTER VIII 

' JEFFERSON AT MONTICELLO 

From the time of his marriage until he became 
an active member of Congress, Mr. Jefferson spent 
most of his time at Monticello. Public business 
and law practise caused him to be absent fre- 
quently; but the better parts of the years were 
passed amid the delightful scenes of home, where 
children came to complete the domestic happiness. 

Eagerly as an artist at work on a model, Mr. 
Jefferson continued to rear his mansion. 

Like the old Countess of Shrewsbury, " Bess of 
Hardwick," who believed that she would die when 
she quit building, and who actually did expire dur- 
ing a frost which stopped her workmen, Jefferson 
never ceased to make alterations, improvements, in 
house or grounds as long as he could lay his hands 
on ready cash. 

And next to designing houses for himself, he 
delighted in designing them for others. Public 
buildings, private buildings, in country and in town, 
residential, devotional, educational — no matter 
what sort was wanted — Jefferson's heart glowed 
with pleasure when he was asked to furnish the 
plan. 

We see him in the dawn of his brilliant youth 
9 113 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

laying the foundation and rearing the walls of 
Monticello; in his tranquil old age, when he can no 
longer walk or ride, we shall see him, telescope in 
hand, watching from his mountain observatory the 
execution of his last great undertaking — his noble 
monument— the University of Virginia. 

After all, the instinct of the architect being 
that of the artist who paints pictures, no dwelling 
is lovely without an environment which charms. 
There must be harmony, or the picture is a daub. 

True to this principle, Mr. Jefferson molded na- 
ture to correspond with the house — the house to ac- 
cord with nature. The grove, the lawn, the terrace, 
the gardens, the walk, the drive^ — he thought of all, 
and himself directed every touch which trans- 
formed rugged, unkempt surroundings into culti- 
vated beauty. He loved the work too well to leave 
it to others. 

It was his passion to impress his thought, his 
preference upon everything around him. Where to 
plant the orchard and how; what trees to set out 
and where; what spot to level for flowers, and 
which for vegetables; how many vines, shrubs, 
roots, bulbs, seeds, nuts, and what sorts; when the 
planting should be done and in what way; where 
the terrace wall should run and where the carriage 
turn; in each respect and all, the originator, the 
supervisor, the final arbiter was Jefferson himself. 
He teaches his negroes how to burn bricks, forge 

114 



JEFFERSON AT MONTICELLO 

nails, frame a house, set a window or a door, run a 
stair, lay a floor, raise a dome. He employs Ital- 
ian gardeners, and then bosses the gardening him- 
self. He keeps an overseer, and then directs how 
each field shall be managed; will not allow lazy 
slaves to be pushed. He names his hogs as he 
does his horses; and his overseer afiflrms that he 
knows the name of each of these hogs, and that 
when one of them is to be killed, it is the master 
who designates by name the unfortunate pig. 

Not only does he have Italian gardeners, as he 
will afterward have a French cook, but he takes 
lessons from an Italian music-master. 

Martha Wayles (who is now Mrs. Jefferson) was 
taught to play upon the harpsichord by Alberte; the 
same teacher now guides Mr. Jefferson in his strug- 
gles with the violin. When absent from home, he 
carries as part of his luggage a small fiddle (called 
a kit), and early every morning, when the others in 
the house are asleep, he begins to practise, keeping 
it up until breakfast is ready. For three hours each 
day, for many years, the persistent Jefferson has 
been laboring to express in sound the music that 
is in his soul. As to his success in having done 
so, accounts vary. His style of music, like his 
taste in cookery and house-building, differed radi- 
cally from the standards approved in the back- 
woods. Country people who dearly love a " break- 
down " do not understand why anybody should 

115 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

play a hyiiin on a fiddle. Such people would sit 
up all night to hear the catgut ring with Arkan- 
sas Traveler, Mississippi Sawyer, Cotton-Eyed Joe, 
Soapsuds agin the Fence, Billy in the Low- 
Grounds, Devil's Dream, and Durang's Hornpipe; 
they would go to sleep under the strains of Caval- 
leria Rusticana, 

When the renowned violinist, Ole Bull, gave a 
concert in Washington, it is said that in the midst 
of one of his most exquisite renditions, when the 
audience was listening with that intense hush 
which is the highest tribute, a harsh voice clanged 
through the hall, " None of your high-falutin' stuff! 
Give us the Arkansas Traveler! " 

The disturber was General Felix Grundy Mc- 
Connell, a congressman from a Southern State. 

There was an animated struggle, for the gen- 
eral and congressman was stalwart as well as ob- 
structive and belligerent; but in the end they man- 
aged to put him out of the house. 

To such a man as he, the musical performances 
of Thomas Jefferson may have seemed quite tame. 
The fiddlers who pleased country people were those 
who played by ear; Mr. Jefferson played by note. 
The tunes which delighted the rural citizen were 
quick, short, full of life, impelling to the dance— in- 
spiring catches which made the light leap into the 
eyes of the young, while the feet of age softly pat- 
ted the floor, keeping time— merry music of the 

116 



JEFFERSON AT MONTICELLO 

people, bubbling over with frolic and fun, and 
bringing to the lips instinctively the old ballroom 
call of '' Honor jour partners! " Sweet, sweet are 
the memories which cling to these old tunes! We 
danced them when we were young, our fathers, our 
grandfathers, our great-grandfathers danced them 
when they were young. 

Fair women, bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked, light- 
footed, go in and out, round and round in the dance, 
radiantly lovely, innocently joyous, as far back as 
eye of recollection can sweep. And as the fiddle 
talks — as the old, old tune rings to the rafter, as 
the pat of the foot sounds on the floor — it is not 
only the boy and the girl of to-night we see as they 
go dancing far toward the morning, but we see also 
as in a haze the shadowy forms which come troop- 
ing out of the past, the vanished lovers and the 
vanished maidens of the enchanted realm of " old 
times." 

To country people whose education in music had 
never gone beyond the simple tastes of nature, it 
is quite probable that Thomas Jefferson's prefer- 
ence for long-drawn psalm tunes or operatic airs 
may have inspired the same disgust as did the 
French cook, whose presence in Virginia aroused 
Patrick Henry to accuse Jefferson of having " ab 
jured his native victuals." 

The time not having come for the feud between 
these two, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson 

117 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

often played violin duets together; and another 
brother fiddler whom Jefferson was fond of playing 
with was John Randolph, son of Sir John and father 
of Edmund. 

This particular John Randolph was a man of 
elegant person, manners, and aceomplishments. 
Withal he was one of the best lawyers in Virginia, 
holding the post of Attorney-General under Lord 
Dunmore. 

And Jefferson coveted Randolph's fiddle, 
yearned eagerly therefor, and entered into a queer 
contract by the terms of which he was to have the 
fiddle for three hundred dollars if he outlived Ran- 
dolph. 

As a consideration, moving to Randolph, he was 
to have books of Jefferson's to the value of four 
thousand dollars, in case he outlived Jefferson. 

With great formality Jefferson had this agree- 
ment put into legal shape, attested by George 
Wythe, Patrick Henry, and five others; proved be- 
fore the clerk of the court, and spread upon the 
records. 

And now the beginning of a new era was at 
hand. Old things were passing away. 

The easy-going times of peace, social repose, 
and political quiet would be seen no more. 

Ties of family and of friendship were being 
broken. Old Lord Fairfax, the self-exiled hermit 
of the stone lodge in the wilderness of Virginia, 

118 



JEFFERSON AT MONTICELLO 

the British peer whose favor gave Washington his 
first lift to fortune, will grieve over his young 
friend, who seems to be going astray; will soon be 
saying to his faithful slave, " Put me to bed; it is 
time for me to die." 

John Randolph feels that loyalty to his king re- 
quires him to follow Dunmore in his flight. His 
own son is cut off from him; for Edmund is a fire- 
eating rebel who will seek service with Washing- 
ton. But in the sadness and the haste of his going, 
Randolph does not forget Jefferson. Money, ready 
money, will do the exile more good now than the 
violin. Perhaps he will not feel like playing it 
again in the England to which he goes. 

So Jefferson gets the fiddle now — gets it for less 
than sixty-five dollars, and his heart is made ex- 
ceedingly glad. 

As for Randolph, stanch friend, loyal subject, 
superb lawyer, splendid gentleman, he says good-by 
forever to his only son on the desolate seashore, 
and goes his way to London, penniless, ruined. 

Upon a wretched pittance from the British 
treasury he lives in poverty at Brampton, a broken 
man. 

His daughter, Ariana, had been about to marry 
the English aristocrat. Captain Parker, afterward 
Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, whose signal to cease 
firing at Copenhagen Nelson refused to see. 

This match is now broken off, and Ariana weds 
119 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

an old sweetheart, James Wormeiy, at Dunmore's 
place in Scotland. 

Broken-hearted, wandering from Brampton to 
Dunmore's in Scotland, where his kinsman, the 
earl, gives him a welcome which makes one soft- 
en to Dunmore, eating the bread of poverty and 
dependence, proud John Randolph did not live 
long; died in 1784, begging at the last that 
his body might be carried back to his beloved 
Virginia. 

On the first ship that came across after the 
peace, the body was brought, and the exile rested 
at length in the college chapel at Williamsburg, 
beside his brother and his father. 

Generous souls will not fail to admire the de- 
votion of such a royalist! 



Mr. Jefferson's establishment at Monticello was 
now very large. There were eighty-three slaves 
and thirty-four white people. Included in this lat- 
ter number were the widow and children of Dabney 
Carr. Mr. Jefferson had no sooner buried his 
friend on the spot they had chosen, than he brought 
the bereaved family to Monticello, where his house 
became their home. 

The old mother yet lived at Shadwell, and with 
her Jefferson's younger brother, Randolph. 

Serenely happy is the master of Monticello in 
120 



JEFFERSON AT MONTICELLO 

these quiet years before the war. He makes and he 
spends, labors where work is not toil, loves and is 
loved, is in perfect health of body and of mind, and 
to him the world is bathed in sunlight. Little 
Martha, the first-born, begins to toddle about the 
house. 

Husband, father, master, neighbor — he is kind 
to everybody. He loves to see bright faces about 
him. He loves to give pleasure to others. He 
Avould no sooner hurt the feelings of any mortal, 
wilfully, than he would steal. 

Never fretting, scolding, worrying; never cloud- 
ing the sunniness of to-day by forebodings about 
to-morrow; never souring the milk of human kind- 
ness by scowls, sarcasms, reproaches, wrangles, 
or malicious gossip, he drew on the bank of the 
present for every legitimate pleasure that stood to 
his credit. He believed that the surest way to 
happiness was the making of others happy. This 
gospel he preached and practised. Serenely confi- 
dent and contented, he hums softly as he paces 
about his mountain home, measuring everything 
with a tape line, weighing everything with steel- 
yards, probing everything with questions, calcu:- 
lating everything with pen or pencil, seeing to 
everything with his own eyes; and then, at night, 
or at some odd hour during the day, jotting it down 
in those faithful books. 

A variedly industrious, widely intelligent, emi- 
121 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

nently companiouable, nobly aspiring, warm-heart- 
ed, benevolent, bright-tempered man. 

Just the kind of man a stranger would apply 
to, a beggar hunt up, a cynic shun, a bigot hate, a 
sharper pursue, a scholar delight in, a patriot 
trust, a neighbor love and impose on, a shyster 
outwit, visitors make a convenience of, overseers 
bankrupt, philosophers esteem, fellow statesmen 
respect, enemies ridicule as often as they hated; 
friends blindly follow, sincerely respect, and good- 
naturedly joke at; children adore; and a pure, high- 
minded wife worship with boundless affection. 

Mixed sunlight and shadow was in this charac- 
ter as in all others, flaws, foibles, follies — the gold 
not wholly free and pure; but as nearly deserving 
unmixed affection and admiration as any son of 
Adam' whose hands were ever given from youth to 
age to the molding of better laws, better institu- 
tions, better conditions for the human race. 



122 



CHAPTER IX 

THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 

The stamp Act Congress of 1765, called at the 
instance of Massachusetts, had taken a conserva- 
tive position. In the Declaration of Rights then is- 
sued, the colonies merely claimed local self-govern- 
ment and self-taxation, together with trial by jury 
in the colonial courts. 

In the Congress which met at Philadelphia, Sep- 
tember 5, 1774, the Petition to the King for Redress 
of Grievances was couched, as in 1765, in the lan- 
guage of loyal subjects; and the Declaration of 
Rights made no marked advance over that of 1765, 
so far as assertion of principles was concerned. 
They tightened the bands of the boycott against 
the mother country; organized to enforce this boy- 
cott; and resolved to ostracize all such American 
citizens as continued to deal with Great Britain. 
In fact, the attitude taken by Washington, Lee, 
Henry, Adams, Sherman, Jay, Dickinson, and Rut- 
ledge was substantially that of a labor union of 
the present day during a struggle with a capitalis- 
tic trust. Those Americans who would not join the 
association and boycott Great Britain were " ene- 

123 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

lilies to the liberties of their country/' and were 
themselves to be boycotted. These recreants to the 
common cause were " scabs " for whom Washing- 
ton, Adams, Lee, Jay, and Sherman had no respect, 
had only angry scorn and bitter animosity. Times 
change, but human nature simply goes round and 
round. 

The absence of Mr. Jefferson from the Virginia 
Convention of 1774 was no doubt the reason why 
he was not chosen by that body as one of the dele- 
gates to the first Continental Congress. In Janu- 
ary, 1775, he was elected by the citizens of Albe- 
marle as a member of their Committee of Safety; 
and in March, 1775, he served as their delegate to 
the second Convention, which met in Richmond. 

It was in this Convention that Patrick Henry 
made the speech so familiar to all, the burden of 
which was " We must fight! " It was upon his mo- 
tion that a committee was named to prepare Vir- 
ginia for the coming conflict. 

With George Washington acting as chief of a 
Revolutionary Committee charged with the duty of 
" embodying, arming, and disciplining " rebels. 
Lord Dunmore thought it high time to put the 
king's powder where his subjects could not lay re- 
bellious hands upon it. On the night of April 20, 
1775, he caused a squad of marines from a British 
war-vessel in James River to come to Williams- 
burg, seize the powder, and cart it away to the ship. 

124 



THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 

As soon as this fact became known, the patriots 
assembled in arms. At Fredericksburg the rebels 
were persuaded by Randolph and Pendleton to dis- 
perse; at Charlottesville they did not act, because 
Washington failed to come at their call. But in 
Hanover County, Patrick Henry put himself at the 
head of the volunteers, and straightway began the 
armed march of thousands to Williamsburg. Dun- 
more fired off that habitual weapon of administra- 
tive warfare — a proclamation. His family fled to 
the shelter of a British ship. Marines were landed 
to protect the royal authorities. 

But Patrick Henry, deaf to all timid counsels 
of " the conservative element," came marching on. 
Dunmore's nerve failed him; and when the rebels 
had come to Doncastle, sixteen miles off, he sent 
a messenger offering pay for the powder. In 
his haste, he sent a larger sum than the powder was 
worth; and Henrj^, not aware that British marines 
had been landed and threats made to fire upon the 
town, drew off and disbanded his men. And as he 
wended his way homeward, the most popular now 
of all Virginians, Dunmore fired at him again — 
with another proclamation. 

In June, 1775, Lord Dunmore convened the bur- 
gesses to take into consideration Lord North's Con- 
ciliatory Proposition. Many of the members came 
to this session wearino- their hunting-shirts and 



bringing their rifles. 



125 



LIFE AND TIJMES OF JEFFERSON 

Peyton Randolph, who was President of the 
Continental Congress, was now called home to pre- 
side over the burgesses; and Mr. Jefferson went to 
Philadelphia to succeed him — the Richmond Con- 
vention having foreseen this vacancy and having 
elected Mr. Jefferson to fill it. Before his departure 
from the Virginia Assembly, however, he had been 
asked to prepare a reply to Lord North's proposi- 
tion, and had done so. With slight changes, his 
paper was adopted by the House. This " Concilia- 
tory Proposition " was, in substance, that Parlia- 
ment would exempt from imperial taxation any 
colony which would voluntarily make such contri- 
bution to the common defense of the empire, and 
establish such fixed provision for the support of its 
own civil government as Parliament should ap- 
prove. The objections to his proposal were obvious. 
It sought to deal with the colonies separately; it 
left grievances unredressed; and it quieted no- 
body's fears about being transported to England 
for trial. 

The unbiased reader is inclined to believe that 
Great Britain would have found it next to impos- 
sible to conciliate her colonies at this time by any 
proposition which did not concede the fullest meas- 
ure of local self-government. The thought of be- 
ing ruled by masters beyond seas had grown hate- 
ful; and while vast differences of opinion existed 
as to ways and means, policy and management, the 

126 



THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 

people were substantially united in their determina- 
tion to make their own laws and administer their 
own affairs. 

Professor Channing, who professes and writes 
history at Harvard University, states that Jeffer- 
son succeeded Washington in the Virginia delega- 
tion to Congress. This is one of the learned 
professor's numerous errors in that Student's His- 
tory of his. At the time that the Richmond Con- 
vention elected Mr. Jefferson to Congress, Wash- 
ington had not been appointed Commander-in-Chief, 
and the Virginians could not possibly have foreseen 
that there would be such a vacancy in their dele- 
gation. What they did foresee w^as that Peyton 
Randolph might be called home from Congress to 
preside over the Virginia Legislature; and Thomas 
Jefferson was elected to take Randolph's place in 
Congress, should that vacancy occur. Randolph was 
called home, and Jefferson went forward to take 
his place in Congress. 

Mr. Jefferson's reputation at the time he entered 
the Congress in 1775 was already established 
throughout the colonies. By those who had kept 
posted on passing events, he was known as a ripe 
scholar, an advanced thinker, an aggressive pa- 
triot, and a forceful, ready writer of political 
papers. 

On the day that Jefferson took his seat in Con- 
gress, the news of Bunker Hill came ringing 

127 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

through the land, thrilling every patriot soul. Five 
days afterward he was placed upon the committee 
which had in hand the preparation of an Address 
setting forth the American side of the controversy 
with their king, the reasons why the colonies were 
in arms. John Rutledge, of South Carolina, had 
drawn up a statement, a statement which the Com- 
mittee did not like. 

Mr. Jefferson was now asked to try his pen. 
Ready as ever, the flowing sentences filled page 
after page, and the Address was submitted. Again 
the Committee was not pleased; the language of 
Mr. Jefferson was too strong. Mr. Dickinson, of 
Pennsylvania, was the chief objector; and it was 
now his turn to attemj)t to set forth the reason why 
his Majesty's faithful subjects were shooting 
his Majesty's soldiers and blockading his Majesty's 
forces in Boston. His mild, prudent paper was 
adopted. 

Mr. Jefferson, however, drew up the reply which 
Congress made to Lord North's Conciliatory Propo- 
sition. 

It was in the committee-room that Mr. Jefferson 
was the most effective. Here he felt no embarrass- 
ment, and was at his best. His information was so 
great, his thoughts so bold and clear, his readiness 
to take hold of the laboring-oar so frank and 
earnest, that he made a fine impression upon all of 



his colleagues. 



128 



THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 

His temper was conciliatory. He steered clear 
of personal feuds. His soft answers turned away 
wrath. His readiness to submit to correction dis- 
armed malice. He made no parade of his learning. 
He did not sulli in his tent because his own papers 
were cast aside, and his own plans condemned. 
Even John Adams loved him. And between Jeffer- 
son and Samuel Adams, true democrats both, the 
relations were so cordial, based upon such harmony 
of conviction, that there never was a rupture be- 
tw^een them. 



" In May, 1775, George Washington, on his v> ay 
to Congress, met the Rev. Jonathan Boucher, in the 
middle of the Potomac. While their boats paused, 
the clergyman warned his friend that the path on 
w^hich he was entering might lead to ' a separation 
from England.' " 

Washington's answer to the preacher was in 
temper and substance, " Is thy servant a dog, that 
he should do this thing? " 

John Jay is quoted as having solemnly declared 
that prior to that second Petition of the Congress 
of 1775, he had never heard of anybody mentioning 
such a word as Independence, contemplating such a 
thing as separation from Great Britain. 

Yet the truth is that in 1775 there was, and had 
long been, a party in the colonies which was aweary 
10 129 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

of British insolence, British greed, and British en- 
croachments. 

Southern planters were tired of being robbed 
by English tariffs and English factors. Northern 
merchants were tired of Navigation Acts which 
drove all their goods, ships, and profits to London 
and Liverpool. The manner in which Great Brit- 
ain had interfered to destroy the local currency of 
Pennsylvania and Massachusetts was resented; the 
arrogant tone of superiority in which Tory leaders 
in Parliament had spoken of the colonists individ- 
ually and collectively was resented; the plain pur- 
pose which England showed of reducing the Amer- 
icans to submission and taxing them at will was re- 
sented. And when she struck at Rhode Island with 
High Commissions backed by Admirals and Gen- 
erals; when she threatened to take away trial by 
jury and deport prisoners to England; when she 
threw the penalty of death around brass buttons, 
tar-buckets, rope-ends, and water-barrels belonging 
to her men-of-war, she aroused bitter enmity in the 
breast of every American Whig who could read or 
think or feel. 

When she garrisoned Boston with red-coats, 
when she struck at the Massachusetts Charter, 
when she stretched the boundary line of Canada 
hundreds of miles southward, when she closed the 
Boston port and began to wreak vengeance upon a 
thousand innocent persons in order to punish one 

130 



THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS 

culprit, every colony was alarmed, indignant, re- 
sentful, swept into the current of a common 
cause. 

All this was prior to May, 1775. 

No talk of Independence until after that second 
Petition of the second Congress? Nobody dream- 
ing of separation then? 

Had not the Boston Gazette been advocating 
separation for several years? Had not Samuel 
Adams been talking it all over the town? 

On October 11, 1773, this bold democrat dis- 
cussed in the Gazette the plan of " An Independent 
State," an " American Commonwealth," as a sug- 
gestion that had often been made. He did not even 
claim that he was the originator of the idea. He 
spoke of it as common property, something which 
had been often mentioned and frequently discussed. 

The Rev. John Wesley declared that so far 
back as 1737 the leading people of the colonies were 
crying out for Independence; and in another Eng- 
lish pamphlet the statement was made that the au- 
thor had been personally acquainted with the col- 
onies for forty years, and Independence had been 
the talk all the time. When the mother country 
was toasted, as patriots lifted glasses to drink, the 
hearty sentiment was, " Damn the old bitch!" 

Yet Benjamin Franklin sat down before Lord 
Chatham, looked that eagle-beaked Englishman in 
the eye, and told him that nobody in America, drunk 

131 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

or sober, had ever hinted at such a thing as Inde- 
pendence! 

On the night of the 5th of June, some young 
men, entering the Old Magazine to seize arms, were 
wounded by a spring-gun planted there. The rage 
which this incident excited filled the streets with a 
crowd which was loud in its threats and curses. 
Dunmore fled in the night to a British man-of-war 
at Yorktown. That was the last of the governor 
at Williamsburg. Henceforth between him and 
the people of Virginia there was to be war. 

The Assembly adjourned, after having called a 
meeting of the Convention for July. 

Standing on the porch of the Old Capitol, Rich- 
ard Henry Lee wrote on one of the pillars: 

When shall we three meet again ? 
In thunder, lightning, and in rain ? 
When the hurly-burly's done, 
When the battle's lost and won. 



132 



CHAPTER X 

AFFAIRS IN GEORGIA 

Georgia was the weakest of all the colonies, 
and had less to complain of; for she had been the 
object of royal bounty to the amount of nearly a 
million dollars. 

Her interior settlements were scattering, and 
there were several tribes of Indians which still con- 
tinued to make strenuous objection, with rifle and 
tomahawk, to the manner in which the whites 
robbed them of their lands. 

Indian wars were constant and bloody — a fact 
which Georgians had to consider before they rushed 
into trouble with Great Britain, for there were only 
about twenty-five thousand white people in Georgia. 
Besides, the king was represented in this little col- 
ony by a man of tact, force of character, and 
courage. Governor Wright wielded a powerful in- 
fluence; and in Savannah, where he lived, the Tory 
element naturally had its strength. 

Nevertheless, he found it to be the hardest kind 
of work to keep down rebellion; and in 1775 there 
was intercepted at Charleston a letter in which 
Governor Wright called upon General Gage to send 
troops to Georgia. 

133 



AFFAIRS IN GEORGIA 

The Stamp Act agitation was felt in Georgia as 
in the other colonies. James Habersham took the 
same position here as Rutledge occupied in South 
Carolina and Henry in Virginia. " Sons of Liberty " 
organized to resist the sale of the stamps. A mes- 
senger from Georgia was present at the Congress 
of 1765. Formal delegates were to have been 
chosen by the Georgia Assembly, and it required all 
of Governor Wright's persuasion to prevent it. 

The people rose in arms to seize the stamps, and 
the governor had to send them to Fort George, on 
the Cockspur Island, where the papers were kept 
under strong guard. None of the stamps could be 
sold in Georgia, excepting a few which were used 
by some ships in the port of Savannah which feared 
to sail without them. 

The non-importation resolutions of Massachu- 
setts and Virginia were adopted in Georgia; and 
Governor Wright officially reported to the home 
government that the Stamp Act could not be en- 
forced. 

When the port of Boston was closed, the people 
in all parts of the colony passed resolutions con- 
demning the mother country and pledging Georgia 
to support Massachusetts. A committee was named 
to correspond with the committees of the other col- 
onies and to collect contributions to aid the poor of 
Boston. 

Five hundred and seventy-nine barrels of rice, 
134 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

together with six hundred dollars in money, were 
shipped to Boston to relieve the suffering there. 

Fleeing from religious persecution in New Eng- 
land, a colony of Quakers had found homes and 
warm welcome in Georgia, and had named their 
new settlement Wrightsborough. Joseph Maddox 
and Thomas Watson were the leaders of this band 
of refugees, and they built a thriving town on their 
40,000-acre grant of land. 

It was in this Quaker village that one of the first 
revolutionary conventions of the Southern people 
was held. Their resolution to support the Boston 
patriots in the position they had taken was reduced 
to writing and signed by men whose descendants 
live in, and around, the good old borough to-day — 
the smoke of whose chimneys the writer sees from 
his home any fair day of the year. 

The patriots called a Provincial Congress, and 
war seemed imminent. A British cruiser was sta- 
tioned in the Savannah River, and troops were or- 
dered up from St. Augustine. This was December, 
1774. In January, 1775, the Provincial Congress, 
a purely revolutionary body, met in Savannah, or- 
ganized, and elected delegates to the Philadelphia 
Congress; but the failure of the regular assembly 
to cooperate with this voluntary body paralyzed 
to a great extent the progress of the revolutionary 
Congress. It was at this moment, when Georgia 
was finding it so difficult to overcome the Tories, 

135 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

who had a most resourceful leader in Wright, that 
the Puritan element made itself felt. In St. John's 
Parish, the Midway District, lived descendants of 
sturdy Protestants w^ho had fled from religious and 
political bigotry in Germany, and upon their altars 
leaped the fires of open rebellion in Georgia. They 
would wait no longer upon the other parishes; they 
chose Dr. Lyman Hall their representative, and 
sent him on to the Congress in Philadelphia. This 
was March, 1775. 

In May, 1775, the patriot party, led by the best 
men of Savannah, broke into the magazine and 
seized about six hundred pounds of i^owder — and 
tradition says that some of it was burned at Bunker 
Hill. In June, 1775, a Committee of Safety was ap- 
pointed. Under William Ewing, as president, it en- 
tered upon its duties. In July, 1775, the Provincial 
Congress of Georgia commissioned a schooner, 
which pursued and overhauled a British ship, and, 
aided by a force of South Carolinians, boarded her 
and captured thirteen thousand pounds of gunpow- 
der — five thousand pounds of which was sent to 
Philadelphia for the use of the Continental Army. 

On July 4, 1775, a revolutionary Congress, in 
which every parish in Georgia was represented, 
convened at Savannah. This convention squarely 
endorsed everything that had been done by the 
Philadelphia Congress, and adopted a Declaration 
of Principles which began with the words, " Re- 

136 



AFFAIRS IN GEORGIA 

solved, That we were born free, have all the feel- 
ings of men, and are entitled to all the natural 
rights of mankind." 

This revolutionary body then organized an As- 
sociation, whose duty it was to keep step with the 
other colonies, to oppose the execution of oppres- 
sive Acts of Parliament, and provide a general com- 
mittee which should, in effect, rule the colony. 

The Committee of Safety reorganized the mi- 
litia, took possession of the Custom-House, relieved 
another British vessel of its cargo of gunpowder, 
and refused a vessel from Senegal permission to 
laud a cargo of negroes. 

The arrival at Tybee, January 12, 1776, of two 
British men-of-war and a transport, with a detach- 
ment of troops, served but to aggravate matters. 

Major Joseph Habersham took a squad of pa- 
triots, marched to the house of the governor, and, 
placing his hand upon his shoulder, said, '' Sir 
James, you are my prisoner! " 

The Provisional Congress adopted a provisional 
Constitution, and put Archibald Bulloch — the first 
Chief Magistrate of Independent Georgia — into the 
vacant place of royal appointee Wright. 

Among the men of 1776 there was not one who 
surpassed in the sterling qualities of manhood this 
honest, capable, fearless, patriotic Georgian. The 
entire people mourned his loss when he died in the 
midst of his noble labors in 1777, it not being his to 

137 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

see the triumph of the cause. From this great 
Georgian is descended, on the maternal side, Presi- 
dent Theodore Roosevelt. 

Lachlan Mcintosh was put in command of the 
Continental Battalion, and on February 16, 1776, 
we find him in communication with Washington. 

Colonel Mcintosh informs the Commander-in- 
Chief that Georgia's position is weak; that there 
are not more than three thousand men in the colony, 
excepting those on the seacoast; and that these are 
scattered over a very wide area. The rich people 
are Tories, as a rule; hence, the whites are divided. 
There are some fifteen hundred negroes, who must 
be kept down; and there are three great Indian na- 
tions, who may break into hostilities at any time- 
Creeks, Choctaws, and Cherokees. These Indians 
can muster ten thousand warriors; and Mcintosh 
gives them the credit for being " brave and in- 
trepid." 

In April, 1776, Colonel Mcintosh reports to 
Washington the organization of the Battalion. One 
of his diflQculties in getting the people to enlist is 
that they do not like to submit to the restraints of 
military discipline. He also sends Washington a 
copy of the provisional Constitution which the 
Georgia Congress had declared should be in force 
until a permanent Constitution of government 
could be framed. This provisional Constitution set 
up a complete government, executive, legislative, 

138 



AFFAIRS IN GEORGIA 

and judicial, naming the various officers and fixing 
the salaries. 

Governor VA^right fled to England, and did not 
return until July, 1770, when he again set up a brief, 
rickety royal government. 



139 



CHAPTER XI 

PATRICK HENRY IN COMMAND 

Upon the retreat of Dunmore, the government 
of Virginia passed into the hands of the Committee 
of Safety. Patrick Henry was made Commander- 
in-Chief of the military forces. 

Dunmore, at Norfolk, proclaimed martial law, 
appealed to the slaves to join him — offering them 
freedom — and he ravaged the shores of Chesapeake 
Bay. British and negroes overrun Hampton, burn- 
ing, destroying, perpetrating every outrage. 

The Committee of Safety sent Colonel Wood- 
ford, with a small body of Virginia troops, toward 
Norfolk in December, 1775. When the Americans 
reached Great Bridge, Captain Fordyce, at the head 
of about sixty British grenadiers, attacked the 
breastworks which the Virginians had hastily 
thrown up. A hot fire met the British, and their 
commander fell. He rose, brushing his knees as 
though he had merely stumbled, and he cheered his 
men onward until he was within twenty paces of 
the breastworks. There he fell dead. His grena- 
diers broke, and fled to the British fort. (Decem- 
ber 9, 1775.)! 

' John Marshall, afterward Chief Justice of the United States, was a 
lieutenant of Woodford's company in this action. 

140 



PATRICK HENRY IN COMMAND 

Dunmore left Norfolk, and took refuge iu the 
English ships. 

If any spur was needed to make the restless 
steed of revolution spring forward at mad gallop, 
the British now struck it home. 

Falmouth was wantonly destroyed at the North; 
and at the South the chief city of Virginia was in- 
humanly bombarded and burned! 

As provocations to furious wrath and desperate 
desire for revenge, the Boston Massacre and Bunker 
Hill were as nothing as compared to Falmouth and 
Norfolk. Bunker Hill was manly fighting, in the 
open, against men entrenched and ready; the other 
was brutal and cowardly destruction for the sake 
of destruction — was the murder, in reckless, inso- 
lent barbarity, of unarmed men, helpless women 
and children. 

British ships destroyed Falmouth on October 
17, 1775; British guns and torches destroyed Nor- 
folk January 1, 1776. On January 10, 1776, the 
Pennsylvania Journal announced: 

" This day was published, and is now selling by 
Robert Bell, price two shillings, ' Common Sense,' 
addressed to the inhabitants of North America." 

Published and now selling! 

A timelier pamphlet never hit the market. It 
came as the news of Norfolk came. The glare of 
burning homes was on its pages as the people 
read; the cries of women and children, fleeing for 

141 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

their lives as British guns poured cannon-balls into 
the streets, were in the ears of the American pa- 
triot as he heard the ringing voice of Thomas Paine 
calling him to freedom! 

Like torch to dry stubble, like spark to powder, 
the pamphlet set the American world on fire. It 
" burst from the press with an effect which has 
rarely been produced by types and paper in any 
age or country." " The great American cause 
owed as much to the pen of Paine as to the sword 
of Washington." 

Revolutionary governments were already in con- 
trol of most of the colonies. The Carolinas, Vir- 
ginia, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, 
Maryland, Georgia, were practically independent, 
having drifted steadily in that direction ever since 
the formation of Committees of Correspondence. 

Thomas Nelson, said to be the richest man in 
Virginia, moved the Virginia Convention (May 15, 
177G) to instruct her delegates in Congress to pro- 
pose a declaration of independence, declaring the 
United Colonies free and independent States. The 
resolutions were unanimously adopted, the next 
day the troops at Williamsburg received them with 
shouts and with boom of cannon. The American 
flag was run up on the Capitol, and at night Will- 
iamsburg was illuminated. 

George Mason then prepared his celebrated 
Bill of Rights and the Virginia Constitution of 1776 

142 



PATRICK HENRY IN COMMAND 

— the first written Constitution, completely organ- 
izing a government, which was ever adopted by a 
free people. 

Richard Henry Lee presented in Congress the 
resolutions which Virginia had instructed her dele- 
gates to present, and supported them with his cus- 
tomary eloquence and zeal. Great differences of 
opinion still existed among the delegates, all being 
patriots, but some being hot while others were only 
w^arm, and a few were somewhat cold. 

John Adams was the tower of strength to the 
resolutions, " the colossus of that debate." 

Pennsylvania was not ready. South Carolina 
was not ready, others wanted more time — fearing 
to burn the bridge. 

It was at this period that the American patriots 
won their first decisive victory over Great Britain. 
British ships, under Sir Peter Parker,^ attacked 
Fort Sullivan, in South Carolina, and were thor- 
oughly beaten by raw troops screened behind pal- 
metto-logs. 

England's strong arm was her navy; at Charles- 
ton she had some of her best ships, commanded by 
some of her best officers. 

A plain citizen, whose chief fitness to defend a 
position was his courage, undertook to hold a fort 

'Not Sir Hvile Parker, as Professor Clianniug, of Harvard, states in 
that Student's History. 

143 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

which General Charles Lee and other experts said 
he could not hold. " Throw up ramparts to protect 
your rear! " urges Lee. " The enemy will never get 
in my rear! " answered Moultrie, in effect, and he 
lazily neglected Lee's counsel. 

" Sir, when those ships come alongside your fort 
they will knock it down in half an hour!" This 
cheerful prediction was volunteered by another mil- 
itary expert. 

Then said Colonel Moultrie: "We will lay be- 
hind the ruins, and prevent their men from land- 
ing!" 

So he makes himself at ease in that log pen of 
his, and when the British ships come alongside he 
shoots them all to pieces. On one of these war-ves- 
sels he kills and wounds more than a hundred men. 
He mortally wounds Lord William Campbell, 
shoots arms off Captains Scott and Morris, puts two 
bullets into Sir Peter Parker — making it a woful 
day generally for the English aristocracy. His flag- 
staff is shot away, and the colors fall outside the 
log pen. Sergeant Jasper leaps out of the fort, 
tears the flag from the staff, and, amid a hail 
of shot, fixes it to a sponge staff, plants it on 
the works, and shouts his three cheers of de- 
fiance! 

Colonel Moultrie's ammunition runs low; he can 
only occasionally fire his guns; but he never once 
thinks of giving up. 

144 



PATRICK HENRY IN COMMAND 

Sergeant McDaniel, cruelly mangled by a can- 
non-ball, shouts with his dying breath: " Fight on, 
boys! Don't let liberty die with me to-day!" 

By and by, watchful Edward Kutledge sends 
more powder, and the peril passes. British ships 
try to slip around to that undefended rear which 
had worried Lee. 

They can not make it. In the shallow water they 
stick in the mud, jamming one another — at the spot 
where Fort Sumter now stands. 

Midnight comes, and the British go. Their ships 
glide away, leaving their helpless Acteon still stuck 
in the mud. Her captain sets her on fire, and 
leaves her to perish — but not before some daring 
Americans have boarded her and emptied three of 
her guns upon her retreating crew. 

The first real victory of the war of American 
Independence! 



11 145 



CHAPTER XII 

GEORGE WASHINGTON 

It is ancient history now — the Revolutionary 
War; and very indifferent is the average citizen to 
its heroes and its triumphs. One reason for this is 
that American historians, endeavoring to be digni- 
fied, leaned a little too far, and became dull. 

One author tried to imitate Gibbon, another 
Macaulay, another Grote, another Green; and a 
sorry business they have made of it. Besides, the 
average book, written by the man of New England, 
has got too much New England in it. The reader 
feels, instinctively, that the American Revolution 
was not so exclusively a tempest in New England's 
tea-pot. Entirely too much has been made of 
trivial New England incidents and of third-rate 
New England individuals. Too many New England 
mole-hills have been magnified into historical moun- 
tains. Even Henry Cabot Lodge, though he made 
a manful attempt, could not cut himself loose from 
the swollen body of dead tradition. 

As to Woodrow Wilson's book — well, we will 
change the subject. 

The Radicals of Massachusetts were not alto- 
gether at ease in Zion when they realized how far 

146 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 

they had gone. Their Tea-Party was not universally 
approved. Samuel Adams enjoyed the situation; 
but such patriots as Franklin advised that the tea 
should be paid for. Then again, it was vehemently 
contended that at Lexington the patriots had fired 
first, and in violation of the orders of their own 
officers. 

Her militia beaten at Bunker Hill, her chief city 
in British hands, her suffering people fed upon the 
bounty of sympathizing friends, Massachusetts oc- 
cupied the perilous position. For her salvation it 
was necessary, absolutely and immediately neces- 
sary, that the other colonies should rally to her 
support. 

The two Adamses, John and Sam, realized per- 
fectly the necessity for committing the South, not 
to the cause generally — for she was already com- 
mitted to that — but to the trial of arms which 
Massachusetts had precipitated. By popular de- 
monstrations, by speeches and resolutions, the 
Southern people were already committed, but noth- 
ing would clinch the combination between North 
and South like the appointment of the strongest 
man in the South to the chief command of the 
army. 

Virginia was the strong colony of the South, 
and Washington was the strong man of Virginia; 
to shrewd Samuel Adams here was a plain case. 
The matchless Southern cavalier, who had come to 

147 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Congress in his uniform, must mount his war-horse 
and ride at the head of the American army! 

The character of George Washington is by com- 
mon consent regarded as one of the grandest known 
to history. In spite of Thomas Carlyle's threat to 
" take down George a peg or two," he remains where 
the eulogy of Light-Horse Harry Lee put him. 

But the praise that is heaped upon him is some- 
times too indiscriminate. There has been too much 
effort to remove him from the companionship of 
men, and to place him among the deities — as the 
ancients used to do. 

That such a man as Parson Weems should be- 
gin this sort of thing, is no matter of surprise; but 
that such an author as John Fiske should fall into 
it, excites amazement. 

The present writer, speaking for himself only, 
dares to confess that he loves Washington because 
he was just a man. 

Show us the Washington who never makes a 
mistake, never commits a sin, never loses his tem- 
per, never does anything small or mean, never is at 
fault, is always right, always master of the situa- 
tion, always sublimely above human weakness — a 
Washington who was supremely great from the 
cradle to the grave— and we frankly admit that we 
take no interest in him, simply because we have no 
faith in him. 

148 ■ ■•^..-■:.: 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 

But show us a Washington who was human, had 
his fits of passion, made his mistakes, committed 
sin, knew what the lusts of the flesh were, loved to 
dance all night, admired a fine figure of a woman, 
hated a poacher to the extent of beating the 
stealthy wretch and breaking his gun, cursed like 
a sailor when in a passion, knew how to pick out the 
best horse, or the best piece of land, had a slave 
whipped if he didn't do his task, had a private sol- 
dier flogged to the limit of the law if he broke the 
rules, forced the new husband of a dead plasterer's 
widow to refund an overcharge made by the de- 
ceased plasterer for work at Mount Vernon, com- 
pelled General Stone to take back a faulty coin 
paid for ferriage at the Washington ferry and to 
pay honest money — show us a Washington like that, 
and we begin to understand him. Show us a man 
who, in spite of such flaws and blemishes as these, 
develops the virtues of his nature until such blem- 
ishes shall become mere sun-spots, and we will join 
you in paying heartfelt adoration to the sun. 

There had been no marvelous deeds connected 
with Washington's youth. He was not the bright- 
est boy at school. Nothing he did caused the elders 
to distill wisdom into predictions. He was just a 
strong, manly, intelligent boy — quicker on the 
playground than in his books. His family was as 
good as the best; but not wealthy. His elder 
brothers, of the half blood, were intimately asso- 

149 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

ciated with some Englishmen whose connections 
were very high; but at one time the mother of 
George had thought of putting him on a British 
ship to become a common sailor. 

He became a land surveyor; and in that capacity 
served Lord Fairfax, who had large tracts of wild 
land, the boundaries of which needed to be fixed 
and marked. Handsomely paid for this hard and 
dangerous work (for the Indians still roamed the 
woods), he saved his money and bought choice bits 
of virgin soil for himself. His explorations and 
surveys were not more perilous than those which 
Peter Jefferson had been making; and so far as we 
know, not better. He did his work faithfully, fear- 
lessly, competently, and got well paid for it: that 
is all. If ever he had to eat his pack-mule while 
out in the wilderness, as Peter Jefferson is said 
to have been obliged to do, tradition has lost the 
indignant mule. 

Prof. John Fiske falls into a flutter of won- 
der and admiration because Governor Dinwiddle 
of Virginia selected so young a man as Wash- 
ington to carry a message into the Ohio woods. 
Really there was no cause for the professor's 
excitement. The most casual inquiry into the 
facts clears up the mystery. The Ohio Land Com- 
pany was reaching out for half a million acres 
which lay in the fertile valleys of the West; the 
two elder brothers of Washington were directors 

150 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 

in the company; Governor Dinwiddle was a mem- 
ber of the company; and Christopher. Gist was the 
surveyor of the company. Therefore, when we see 
Christopher Gist and George Washington thread 
their way through the woods to warn the French 
off the land which the company claims, it looks far 
from mysterious. Professor Fiske's marvel ceases 
to startle. 

The Ohio Company had its powerful London 
members, as well as its powerful Virginia members. 
Secure in the support of the imperial government, 
as well as in that of the colonial government, the 
corporation did not even wait for the issuance of 
the formal grant to the land. 

Christopher Gist and other hardy rovers were 
immediately sent to spy out the country, to report 
on its resources, and to blaze the way for squatters. 
Indian traders hurried to the Ohio with the cus- 
tomary stock of mean whisky, red blankets, blue 
beads, striped calico, gaudy ribbons, and other 
finery dear to the heart of the children of the 
forest. 

In the eyes of the French, who claimed these 
lands for themselves, the English traders were 
mere trespassers who must be put out, and they 
were put out accordingly. Thereupon the Ohio 
Company put its influence to work; and the gov- 
ernments, imperial and colonial, began to take a 
hand in the dispute — just as Cecil Rhodes, Barney 

151 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Barnato, and Joseph Beit managed to have it 
do in the matter of the South African gold- 
mines. 

That the Washington brothers, Dinwiddie, Gist 
and Company were honest in believing the terri- 
tory belonged to Great Britain is not to be doubted. 
In its wild state the soil was not doing anybody 
any good. It was a pity that such fine land should 
serve for nothing better than Indian hunting- 
grounds. It joined Virginia, it was in the line of 
Virginia expansion — what more natural than that 
Virginia should claim it, and should begin to 
throw around it the tentacles of benevolent 
assimilation? 

Washington was as honest in his purpose as 
were Miles Standish, John Smith, Daniel Boone, 
James Robertson, or John Sevier. He wanted the 
land, he fought for the land, he risked his life and 
gave days of toil to get the land — and he got it. 
When the smoke of battle lifted, the hero of Mount 
Vernon owned seventy thousand acres of the finest 
forest land in the world; part of which was his 
own reward as a soldier, and part of which he had 
bought on highly satisfactory terms from his 
brother soldiers. 

During the terms of Botetourt and Dunmore, 
we find Washington continually pressing the 
claims of the Virginia troops to the land for which 
they had fought; and it is highly probable that, 

152 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 

being encumbered as he was by this matter, he 
could not act as radically against the two govern- 
ors as his younger, less embarrassed fellow cit- 
izens could do. 

In this there was absolutely nothing to Wash- 
ington's discredit. It was a matter of great im- 
portance to him and to his comrades in arms that 
they should receive grants to the lands which they 
had so manfully won. Yet in order to get justice 
he had to secure favorable consideration from the 
king's officers, the governors. It would seem that 
this explanation would account for the fact that 
Washington was not at first recognized in Virginia 
as a leader in the movement of armed resistance 
to Great Britain. 

He did not for one instant give countenance to 
the aggressions of the mother country; but he cer- 
tainly did not do more than keep in touch with the 
earlier progress of the revolt. 

When he married the widow Custis, he not only 
added largely to his estate in lands and chattels, 
but he secured control of two hundred thousand 
dollars in cash. 

This was an inestimable advantage. For one 
thing, it made it possible for him to advance sixty- 
five thousand dollars to the cause during the Rev- 
olutionary War, and to serve it without pay for 
eight arduous years. 

But up to the time Washington was appointed 
153 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Commander-in-Chief of the Colonial forces he 
had not gained any wonderful triumphs as soldier 
or civilian. His journey into the Ohio wilderness 
was full of peril and hardships, but not more so 
than hundreds of similar journeys made by white 
men and red men in the frontier life of that day. It 
bore no comparison to what Christopher Gist had 
done in his memorable solitary trip all through the 
Ohio country, into the dark and bloody ground 
which became Kentucky. It was no more than 
was frequently done by such men as Lewis, Clarke, 
Boone, Kenyon, and hundreds of others. 

The ambushing of Jumonville was not a partic- 
ularly glorious exploit; and the surrender at Fort 
Necessity carried with it the signing of a paper 
which afterward caused hot talk in Virginia. The 
capitulation was in the French language, and 
contained a confession that Jumonville had been 
" assassinated." Washington explained that this 
French sentence had been translated to him dif- 
ferently. One of the Virginia officers had, however, 
refused to sign because of this confession to assas- 
sination. 

Washington had afterward served with great 
distinction under Braddock;^ and in beating back 
the Indians from the Virginia frontier. He had 
won no signal battle against them; but he had 

1 One of the soldiers who fought on this famous field was the grand- 
father of Alexander H. Stevens, Vice-president of the Confederacy, 

154 



GEORGE WASHINGTON 

given proof of possessing all the qualities of the 
soldier. When the British came again to renew the 
Braddock campaign, they had been about to fail 
the second time, when he pushed forward and took 
Fort Duquesne. 

Washington had presented George Mason's 
resolutions to boycott English goods; but it does 
not appear that he voted for Patrick Henry's reso- 
lutions against the Stamp Act. He was not taken 
into the meetings of the younger, bolder leaders 
of the burgesses; and was not a member of their 
Revolutionary Committee. 

When Dunmore removed the powder, Wash- 
ington had declined to put himself at the head of 
the militia of Albemarle. 

He continued, till a late day, to dine with the 
governor; and to dance with the Countess of 
Dunmore. 

In Virginia, it was left to Henry, who had been 
first with the word, to be also first with the blow. 

But Washington's was a figure of towering 
prominence. 

In mere physical endowments he commanded 
attention, respect, admiration. He was a gentle- 
man — athlete, tall, strong, well-made, active, 
handsome, dignified, majestic. No one excelled 
him in strength and endurance. He could throw 
a silver dollar across the Rappahannock below 
Fredericksburg; make his way up the wall rock 

155 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

under the Natural Bridge; ride after the fox till 
horses, dogs, and fox were tired out. A finer horse- 
man never put foot to stirrup. 

His eye was steady and his face grave; nobody 
could clap him on the back and cry, " Hello, 
George!" And he could look as wise as he really 
was; and hold his tongue — a precious gift, even to 
the really wise. Another material advantage was 
his vast estates and ready money. 

Nobody considered him, at that time, the best 
soldier in America; he was certainly not thought 
to be the wisest civilian; but everybody looked 
upon George Washington as a solid man, a safe 
man, a true man, a competent, fearless, patriotic, 
resolute, broad-minded, indispensable man. 

Therefore, when the motion was made to place 
him at the head of the army, the great majority 
of the leaders, as well as the people, considered 
the choice of a good one. 



156 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE DECLARATION 

Congress is at last ready to act. It is high time 
that it should. The lower it had stooped, the 
harder King George had kicked it. 

In the midsummer of 1775 it had sent to the 
king another humble petition, drawn by the 
humble Dickinson, and carried to London by the 
Tory, Richard Penn. King George had refused to 
look either at the loyal Richard or his humble 
petition. 

Furthermore, King George had issued his 
proclamation declaring the colonies in rebellion 
and no longer under his protection. 

Then again his agents ransacked Europe to find 
rulers who were willing to hire soldiers to go to 
America to put down this rebellion for him. In 
this search the Hessians were found; and their 
hereditary rulers sent the poor fellows over here 
by the ship-load to kill and be killed in a cause 
they did not even understand. Likewise, emissa- 
ries from Canada were set to work to rouse the 
Indians; and mean whisky, bright-colored fabrics, 
powder and lead, guns and hatchets became un- 

157 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

usually plentiful and accessible to the Red Man of 
the North, the South, and the West. 

Already Cornelius Harnet had led the way to 
Independence in North Carolina. The Mecklen- 
burg Resolutions were in effect the first of Amer- 
ican declarations of Independence. Rhode Island 
soon followed. Then came the town meetings of 
Massachusetts. Then Virginia, May 6th, closely 
followed, having no idea that any other colony had 
already shaken off the burden of allegiance to Great 
Britain.^ 

Kicked by the king, and pushed by the colonies, 
Congress took the bit in its teeth, and made the 
jump. Rutledge, of South Carolina, agreed to vote 
for the Declaration; New York agreed not to vote 
either way; and the cautious Dickinson and Morris, 
of Pennsylvania, were prevailed upon to dodge. 

In this way the Declaration was passed without 
a dissenting voice. 

' The fact that North Carolina hail given the first tap to the drum in 
the grand march of Independence was, indeed, long disputed; and the 
name of Cornelius Harnet was unknown to historians. He was serving 
as President of a Revolutionary government in October, 1775. 

If Cornelius Harnet, or the Mecklenburg Resolutions, are so much as 
mentioned in Woodrow Wilson's five-volume History, the index fails 
to indicate the fact. In Henry Cabot Lodge's sumptuous two-volume 
Story of the American Revolution, there is not a word about this first of 
all the public acts of independence. 

And of course the Harvard scribe, Professor Channing, has nothing 
to say about so trivial an incident. 

To the credit of the fair-minded Bancroft be it said that he renders to 
the old North State the honor of being " the first colony to expressly 
sanction independence." 

158 



THE DECLARATION 

The resolution of Richard Henry Lee was passed 
on July 2d; the Declaration, as drawn by Jefferson 
and amended by Congress, on July 4th. 

Mr. Jefferson writhed a good deal under the 
surgical treatment Congress gave his flowing para- 
graphs; but at last the agony ended — the final 
vote being hastened by the flies which swarmed in 
from a livery-stable near by, and which, during the 
sultry afternoon, became intolerable to legs en- 
cased in silk stockings. 

Of the Pennsylvania delegation only Dr. Frank- 
lin, John Morton, and James Wilson voted for the 
Declaration at the time it was adopted. On the 
20th of July the State named other delegates in 
place of those who had refused to vote; and these 
new members were allowed to sign when they ar- 
rived, just as though they had voted with the 
others. The New York delegates gave in their ad- 
hesion on the 15th of July. As late as November 
4th a delegate from New Hampshire, Dr. Thornton, 
was permitted to sign. 

Most of the actual signing was done on the 2d 
of August, after the resolution had been enrolled 
on parchment. When first issued it was signed only 
by John Hancock, President, and Charles Thomp- 
son, Secretary. 

Mr. Jefferson was asked by his colleagues of 
the committee to write out the Declaration, and he 
did so. It was an easy, grateful task. He had been 

159 



THE DECLARATION 

it be given him on liis monument. That his hon- 
ored name is linked forever with the Magna Charta 
of American liberty is just, for no man has been 
earlier in getting upon the field where the strug- 
gle was to be made, no man had advanced more rap- 
idly with the movement, and to no man were its 
principles more sacred, or its call to service a more 
imperative obligation. 

And to his tact, his conciliatory disposition, his 
even-tempered patience and persistence, it was 
largely due that no factious divisions among the 
patriots robbed the cause of its strength. 

In The Story of the American Revolution the 
learned and elegant author, Henry Cabot Lodge, 
states that the Declaration of Independence was re- 
ceived by the soldiers with " content, and by the 
people cordially and heartily, but without excite- 
ment." 

Is not this summary a little cold? 

The Declaration marks one of the great stages 
of our advancement as a people; it is a mile-stone on 
the great national highway. It is worth knowing 
how it was received. If it was taken as a mere mat- 
ter of course, as some Thane of Cawdor, a prosper- 
ous gentleman, takes his dinner — a thing which is 
good, but not unusual — then, let it go at that. 

But if it sounded through the land like Roder- 
ick's bugle-note in the Highlands; if it rallied the 
wavering and cheered the firm; if it removed doubts 
12 161 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

and fixed a purpose; if it was the guide which, leav- 
ing by-paths and cross-cuts, got into the plain 
straight road and said to the wandering hosts 
" Come on! " — we ought to know it. 

Previous to that time how did the troops or the 
people know officially what they were fighting for? 
Who had said that the time for compromise had 
passed, and that under no circumstances would the 
colonies remain subject to Great Britain? 

Private individuals might clamor for the Inde- 
pendent State, but how could the soldier, or the 
average citizen, know what Congress would do? 
Suppose England should back down, should with- 
draw her troops, and grant every demand, redress 
every grievance — would peace be made, leaving the 
subject colonies still subject? 

These were the issues, and from these sources 
had arisen divided counsels, confused purposes, 
and plans. 

And it was just here that the Declaration of 
Independence was supremely important. It settled 
the debate, removed the doubt, fixed the resolution. 
It burned the bridge, it crossed the dead-line, it 
took the route toward that bourne from which 
no rebel returns, save with a rope around his 
neck. 

The Declaration of Independence was not a 
mere matter of course giving satisfaction and that 
alone; it was a call to nationality, a watch-word, a 

162 



THE DECLARATION 

rallying-point, its official statement of ultimate aim 
and object becoming the pillar of fire which led the 
people through the darkest nights of their dread 
journey toward the Republic. 

In South Carolina the Declaration was received 
with the " greatest joy "; " the President (John Rut- 
ledge), accompanied by all the officers, civil and 
military, making a grand procession in honor of the 
event." ^ 

Yet South Carolina's delegation in the Congress 
had only yielded approval to the Declaration at the 
last moment. 

In Georgia, whose delegation had stood with 
Virginia's from the first, the Declaration was hailed 
with delight in every parish. 

No sooner did the messenger of Congress reach 
President Bulloch with a copy than the Provincial 
Council was called together, the document read, 
and " rapturously applauded." 

The President and Council went in procession 
to the public square, where a great concourse of 
citizens had gathered and the military was under 
arms. The Declaration of Independence was again 
read, amid acclamations; and a military salute was 
fired. Then a formal procession of all the public 
bodies and of the military was formed, and there 
was a grand march to the liberty-pole, and the 
Declaration was read a third time. The artillery 

' Edward McCrady, LL. D., in History of South Carolina. 

163 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

fired thirteen volleys, and the small arms were 
again heard. 

Then President Bulloch marched the entire mul- 
titude to the battery, at the Trustees' Garden, 
where the Declaration was again read, and another 
salute fired from the siege-guns planted at that 
point. 

This begins to look like enthusiasm. 

Then there was a banquet, a military feast un- 
der the cedar-trees, and much hilarious drinking of 
toasts. 

That night Savannah blazed with the light of 
universal illumination. 

There was a monster funeral procession, with 
military in line, and muffled drums; George III was 
buried in effigy, and a mock service read over his 
grave.^ 

In all the Southern States, in New England, in 
the North, and as much of the West as then ex- 
isted, the fervid outbursts of feeling were just the 
same. 

Emphatically, Mr. Lodge's summary is too cold. 

' History of Georgia, C. C. Jones, Jr. 



164 



CHAPTER XIV 

JEFFERSON IN VIRGINIA 

French statesmen eagerly watched what was 
going on across the Atlantic. In the revolt of Eng- 
land's colonies they saw an opportunity to strike 
a blow at the ancient enemy. 

Still, caution was necessary. Consequently, the 
first advances which were made to the colonies by 
France were made through an envoy, who bore no 
credentials, had no official status, and moved about 
Philadelphia with an air of mystery and reserve. 
Attracting attention to himself by vague hints and 
non-committal messages, this envoy, De Bonvouloir 
by name, " an elderly lame man " having the " ap- 
pearance of an old wounded French officer," at 
length got himself before a congressional commit- 
tee, where, refusing to show any credentials, he as- 
sured the members that the King of France was 
their friend, and that money, arms, and ammuni- 
tion should be furnished the colonies. 

Congress appointed a secret committee to cor- 
respond with friends of America in foreign lands. 
Not many months rolled by before the money of 
the French people was passing, by way of Beau- 
marchais, into the hands of the needy Americans. 

165 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Silas Deane was sent over, as secret agent, to 
procure military supplies; but, after independence 
was declared, Congress decided to appoint a formal 
commission to negotiate treaties with France. As 
one of these ministers Mr. Jefferson was chosen, the 
other two being Benjamin Franklin and Silas 
Deane. 

But in the meantime Mr. Jefferson had resigned 
his seat in Congress, had gone home, and had been 
elected to the Virginia Legislature. 

The temptation to accept the appointment as 
Minister to France was great, and he hesitated. 
After keeping the messenger of Congress waiting 
several days, he declined the position. He pre- 
ferred to serve in the Virginia Legislature, where 
the opportunity was golden to accomplish a vast 
work of democratic reform. 

Under the Old Order in Virginia, the main props 
of British aristocracy had been deeply planted. 
The union of Church and State; the right of the 
oldest son to inherit the whole estate of the father; 
the law of entails, which kept the lands in the fam- 
ily, in spite of debts of the heir, or the heir's own 
wish to sell — each of these antidemocratic prin- 
ciples was in full force in Virginia. 

In law, it was a crime not to baptize children 
into the Episcopal Church; a crime to bring a 
Quaker into the colony; a crime for Quakers to as- 
semble. 

166 



JEFFERSON IN VIRGINIA 

In law, the heretic was burnt; and he who de- 
nied God, or claimed that there were three Gods, 
or pretended not to understand and believe in so 
simple a proposition as the Trinity, was a felonious 
culprit, who could not hold office, could not be any- 
body's guardian, executor, or administrator, was 
liable to lose the custody of his own children, and 
would have to continue his theological meditations 
in the penitentiary. 

Payment of tithes to the Church was compul- 
sory; attendance upon divine services was com- 
pulsory, it being legally necessary that the good 
citizens should not only build and repair the church 
but occupy it; not only pay the preacher but listen 
to him. Otherwise, the penal laws looked to it 
sharply — in theory. 

As a matter of fact, the only part of the code 
which seems to have been enforced with any regu- 
larity or vigor was that which related to tithes. 
The citizen really did have to pay. 

There was some persecution of Baptists and 
Quakers, and other dissenters, from time to time, 
but the instances were comparatively few. Relig- 
ious persecution in the South was found in sporadic 
cases, and never became epidemic. 

In Great Britain an owl, like Lord Mansfield, 
might tear his offspring from an eagle, like Shel- 
ley; no father was deprived of his children in 
Virginia. 

167 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

When the common danger of the Revolution- 
ary movement drew all kinds of people together, 
the Baptists in Virginia shouldered their muskets 
and volunteered to fight for the cause. It was then 
(1775) that the Baptist preachers came forward, 
and asked permission to preach to these Baptist 
soldiers. How could such a petition be spurned at 
such a time? Legal permission was given, and 
that was the beginning of legal religious tolera- 
tion in Virginia. 



As to primogeniture and entails, Virginia had 
them in all their vigor. 

Those huge estates which were handed down 
from sire to son, and the grand old mansions whose 
hospitality became a byword, required large rev- 
enues to keep them going. Hence, to maintain the 
feudal establishment, there had to be in Virginia, 
as there were in England, legislative props to the 
system. The land must not be divided; the slaves 
must be kept together to till the land; the oldest 
son should be sole heir; his debts could not waste 
the inheritance; and the law of entails would hand 
it down, unimpaired, to the first-born sons, forever. 

Thus would the " first families of Virginia " per- 
petuate themselves. 

The same love of home, pride of family, and 
spirit of class which created aristocracy in Great 

168 



JEFFERSON IN VIRGINIA 

Britain, came across the waters with the Cavaliers, 
who marked out manorial domains along the Po- 
tomac and the James. 

The ambition to found a family, to perpetuate 
an honored name, and to send on down to remote 
ages the home house and home grounds, was as 
strong in Virginia as in old England itself. 

The colonist did not refer to his estate as " my 
plantation " or " my farm," or designate it vaguely 
as the " place where I live." 

No! The colonist loved his home too well for 
that. To him, his estate was a part of himself; and 
he would no more think of letting it exist anony- 
mously than he would think of letting his children 
run wild without names. 

To him and to all the world his estate was 
" Gunston Hall," or " Rosewell," or " Tuckahoe," or 
"Mount Vernon"; and you were laying up dis- 
agreeable consequences for yourself if you failed to 
remember, and to use, these names. Jones does 
not love the man who calls him Smith, and Smith 
bears no gratitude to the careless acquaintance 
who hails him as Brown; and this punctilio about 
names of persons once clung with almost equal 
strength to home as well as to person. 

In the very life-blood of the race ran this warm 
love for the ancestral seat. Chatsworth was not 
dearer to Cavendish, Penshurst to the Sydneys, 
Hatfield to the Cecils, nor Alnwick Castle to the 

169 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Percys than Westover to the Byrds, Shirley to the 
Carters, Brandon to the Harrisons, and Stratford to 
the Lees. 

A democrat, are you? 

Of course you are; and yet, in your heart of 
hearts, you warm to the old-time Cavalier who 
chose for his home the loveliest spot he could find, 
reared a costlier house than he could afford, made 
it as attractive as he knew how, christened it with 
some pet name of fond association — and then threw 
open its wide doors, and said to all the world: 
"Come sit by my hearth, come eat at my table; 
my house was not built for myself alone! " 

There is a certain nobility in the Englishman's 
love of the ancestral home. 

He does not ever willingly sell it. Money has no 
value beside it. For ages, perhaps, it has been iden- 
tified with his name; the memories, the glories of 
his race, cling to it as does the ivy that climbs its 
walls. 

The boundary lines of the broad acres upon 
which it stands may have been marked off with the 
sword in the days of 

The good old way and simplo plan 
That he shall take who has the power, 
And he shall keep who can. 

Tvhe chain of title may run back to some mag- 
nificent robber who followed William the Norman; 
some mail-clad baron who bearded King John at 

170 



JEFFERSON IN VIRGINIA 

Runnymede. The founder of the house may have 
been some soldier who served valiantly when the 
great Armada's shadow fell upon the coast; or 
some adventurous seaman who flew the Union 
Jack in remotest waters with Hawkins or with 
Drake. 

The older part of the mansion itself may have 
been founded hundreds of years ago. The ancient 
towers stood, perhaps, when the Black Prince 
brought home a captive King of France. 

From these old courtyards Crusaders may have 
ridden with Richard or with Edward to the Holy 
Land. Through this massive gateway, knights 
with plumed crests may have followed the banner 
of Henry V to Agincourt, or Edward to Poictiers. 
In this noble hall the Cavaliers of Rupert may have 
caroused before the bugles blew for Edgehill or 
Marston Moor. 

On these walls hangs armor dented with the 
blows of sword and battle-ax at Cressy or Asca- 
lon; banners which tossed in the forefront of bat- 
tle when the war-cry was " a Chandos," " a Talbot," 
" a Warwick," " a Sydney," " a Lancaster." 

Upon the Rhine, the Seine, the Garonne, the 
Scheldt, the St. Lawrence, the Hudson, the Missis- 
sippi, the Ganges, the Nile, the Modder, sons of 
these historic houses have fought, and rarely failed. 
Under Marlborough, Wolfe, Clive, Nelson, Rodney, 
Wellington, on land and sea, in every quarter of 

171 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

the globe, they have answered the call of king and 
country, of duty and danger. 

Nor have its glories been confined to arms, to 
war and bloodshed. Heroes of yet higher type have 
made the old house illustrious. Sages whose words 
of wisdom guided nations; statesmen who set 
bounds to empires; mariners who dragged new 
worlds into touch with the old; philanthropists 
who laid firm hands upon the reins of national 
thought, and gently turned crowding millions into 
better ways of life; masters of melody whose lofty 
rhyme charmed the world; masters of speech whose 
inspired tongues electrified the world; masters of 
practical achievement whose impulse to progress 
bettered the world; masters of the pen whose lines 
of light became the creed and the hope of the 
world. 

Does such a house speak no word of inspiration 
to the son? Does it awaken in him no sense of con- 
secration? Does it lift no high standard of con- 
duct before his eyes? Does it impose no solemn ob- 
ligations, no lofty responsibilities, to which he must 
respond? Has such a house no meaning which 
thrills the very soul? 

To keep the ancestral home in the family, with 
all of its sacred heirlooms, and all of its splendid 
memories, and all of its tender associations— these 
are the high motives which explain England's law 
of primogeniture and entailed estates. 

172 



JEFFERSON IN VIRGINIA 

And this system the Virginians brought with 
them and established. 

It may not be true that John Randolph, of 
Roanoke, set his dogs on the man who came to the 
house and asked if he would sell his land; but it is 
reasonably certain that nine out of ten of the land 
barons of Virginia would have resented the offer to 
buy their ancestral homes. 

But Mr. Jefferson knew that there was another 
side to this picture, and that it was ugly to look 
upon. Land monopoly could only be good to those 
who held the land. Even to these favored few it is 
not an unmixed good. Hereditary wealth may 
breed luxury and vice; the heir who can not be dis- 
inherited may become rebellious, a thankless, un- 
natural child. 

The least worthy of all the children may get all 
the property, leaving the others dependent, their 
careers a subject of anxiety to parents. 

If land monopoly is not wholly beneficial to the 
favored few, it is almost entirely injurious to the 
unfavored multitude. 

It places the soil out of reach, removes it from 
the competition of the industrious, tends to place 
it where it will be least useful to the race. In cre- 
ating a land monopoly, a landed aristocracy, the 
law establishes a caste. Inevitably the system 
evolves the abuses seen in the older countries. 

"Once rich, always rich; once poor, always 
173 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

poor"; whenever such a statement can be made of 
any people, progress has ceased and decay set in. 

An aristocracy of intelligence, virtue, meri- 
torious achievement, Mr. Jefferson recognized as all 
men recognize it; but this natural aristocracy owes 
no homage to mere wealth. Its glorious ranks 
draw, from hovels, recruits who come uniformed in 
sober gray, as well as from mansions, where pur- 
ple and fine linen are worn. 

To found aristocracy on birth and hereditary 
wealth is to make accident the test, depriving 
nature of its right to select. To make character, 
intelligence, noble work, high purpose, the stand- 
ard is to put it where the golden spur will be worn 
by him who wins it. 

In the order of nature, no Chatterton would 
starve in his garret, having stretched out his hand 
in vain supplication to Walpole, the grandee. 

Only in a system where diabolical art, con- 
trivance, selfish convention, had thwarted nature 
would Burns break his heart in squalid poverty — 
lacking the cost of the daily feed of the Duke of 
Devonshire's dogs. 

It was not nature, but a system carved out with 
pens, barriers thrown up by statute, which kept 
Oliver Goldsmith under the wheels, while Mar- 
quises of Queensbury and Dukes of Grafton rode in 
the gilded coach. 

Thomas Paine writes Common Sense to re- 
174 



JEFFERSON IN VIRGINIA 

deem a people and make them happy; his reward is 
a debit account of about one hundred dollars, which 
he must pay to his publisher. 

Edmund Burke writes his pamphlet against 
democracy, and his reward is the smile of a King, 
applause of the aristocracy, and a pension of ten 
thousand dollars per annum, which democratic tax- 
payers must pay. 

Nature is not so unjust. Every beast of the 
field had its chance to graze; every bird of the air 
its chance to fly and feed; every fish of the sea its 
chance to swim and live. The strongest, the fittest, 
survived the competition; but the chance to com- 
pete was always there. 

Democracy aims to give all a chance. It refuses 
to entrench any class in the secure possession of 
the blessings of nature, to the exclusion of all other 
classes. It refuses to admit that all the merit is 
to be found in any one class. It refuses to believe 
that the family which is noblest to-day will be the 
noblest a thousand years from to-day. It refuses 
to despair of the poor and ignorant; refuses to stop 
the wheels of evolution; declines to close the 
avenues of promotion; refuses to put up social, po- 
litical, educational barriers which none but the 
wealthy may pass; refuses to lend its law-making 
power to the strong who would exact eternal 
tribute from the weak. That the strong are strong, 
democracy can not help; but it can avoid the deep 

175 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

damnation of helping the strong to oppress the 
weak. 

In nature the race is not always to the swift, 
nor the battle to the strong; in class legislation, in 
class government, it invariably is, the law being 
made for the purpose. 



Democratic in the highest, best sense of the 
word, Mr. Jefferson now buckled on his armor to 
wage war with the aristocracy of Virginia. The 
contest was stubborn, bitter, and protracted; but 
his triumph was complete in the end. He unfet- 
tered the land, changed the tenure from fee tail to 
fee simple, made the soil democratic, and made the 
law to correspond. Henceforth the family estate 
was to be divided equally among all the children. 



176 



CHAPTER XV 

RELIGION AND SLAVERY 

There was a union of Church and State in Vir- 
ginia, as there was in other colonies, and as there 
was in the various countries of Europe, Asia, and 
Africa. From Dahomey to London the law was the 
same. The priest taught the people to obey the 
king, the king commanded the people to support 
the priest. Frightful laws against treason safe- 
guarded the power of the king, and were upheld by 
the priest; laws equally terrible screened the priest 
from criticism, and were enforced by the king. The 
people obeyed both, paid both, and were cruelly 
maltreated by both. 

Written in London and sent over to the colony, 

the Virginia laws against heresy were as savage 

a set as ever disgraced the books. Had the early 

Virginians been as much given to pious practises 

13 177 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

as the Puritan brethren of New England, there 
might have been a reign of religious terror South 
as there was North. Fortunately for humanity, the 
early Virginian was an easy-going, generous-tem- 
pered mortal, who never could have found luxury 
in whipping bare-shouldered women, pressing old 
men to death under piles of stone, torturing little 
children to extort evidence against their parents, 
and fattening the gallows upon the rottening 
bodies of witches and Quakers. 

The Virginia code, written under the supervi- 
sion of London ecclesiastics, was bloody enough to 
have pleased Loyola or Torquemada, but it was 
treated as all Christian nations now treat the 
sublime moral code of Christ — all believe and none 
practise. 

Open, defiant rebellion against the Church 
would have been put down in Virginia; and when 
Baptists and Quakers came noisily along disturb- 
ing everybody in the effort to teach them some- 
thing and make them think, the conservatives, who 
already knew all they wanted and who did not wish 
to think, rose up and asserted the rights of the 
orthodox. 

The fussy, clamorous Baptist having been put 
into the well-ventilated pen which they called 
prison, he was left to preach through the cracks to 
whoever would listen; while the parson, the mag- 
istrate, the squire, the vestryman, and the faithful 

178 



RELIGION AND SLAVERY 

members of the Church all took a drink, mounted 
their horses, blowed horns for the dogs, and gal- 
loped off on a fox-hunt. In other words, there was 
orthodoxy established by law in Virginia, but there 
was no Inquisition to enforce it. Pharisees did not 
torture their neighbors to death on the pretense 
of saving souls. 

What the Virginians really objected to was the 
compulsory payment of tithes. The pocket nerve 
was the seat of the pain. After the coming of such 
Governors as Fauquier, with their liberal views, 
skeptical books, irreverent conversation, and 
non-pious lives, free thought made long jumps 
in Virginia. Such professors as Dr. Small made 
a different atmosphere at William and Mary; and 
from the college halls it spread throughout the 
State. 

The father of James Madison sent him North, 
hoping to preserve the lad's orthodoxy from the 
contamination of the home school. 

As liberal principles advanced, the number of 
people who could believe in the creed which Henry 
VIII had made for himself grew steadily less; yet 
under the law they had to keep on paying the 
parson. 

The state Church, this Henry VIII Church of 
England, was neither Catholic nor Protestant, but 
a mixture of both, without the strong points of 
either, and to freethinkers it was peculiarly offen- 

179 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

sive. To be compelled to give it glebe and temple, 
house and home, blind reverence and liberal sup- 
port, was intolerable. 

Thomas Jefferson led the assault. 

" Vested interests " made the usual outcry. 
Its voice is ever the same. The contest was long 
and stubborn, the inertia of conservatism, preju- 
dice, custom, family pride, fixed habit, and timid 
conscience hard to overcome; but the line of the re- 
formers continued to advance. It took years to 
finish the work, but it was finished. The bloody old 
laws of superstition and bigotry were repealed. 
Mind and tongue were unfettered. Religious lib- 
erty came to all. The Church of England was put 
on an equal footing with all other denominations. 
Voluntary offerings of the faithful must support it. 
Its glebe, its temple, its lands and houses, were 
confiscated — the people had given, the people took 
away. 

It was the fortune of James Madison to finish 
the work which Mr. Jefferson had begun; but 
when the task was at last done, it was no more than 
Mr. Jefferson had proposed at the beginning. 

Justly proud of this glorious victory for human 
progress, he ranked it as equal to the Declaration 
of Independence, and asked that his monument be 
inscribed with it. 

Working with Edmund Pendleton and George 
Wythe, Mr. Jefferson went over the entire judicial 

180 



RELIGION AND SLAVERY 

system of the colony, remodeling the law and the 
courts. The labor was enormous. These gentlemen 
not only reported bills creating a thorough system 
— high courts and low — but they framed one hun- 
dred and twenty-six separate bills embodying 
changes in the old code.^ 

All these measures did not go into effect at once. 
The work extended over a series of years. Much of 
it was finally done when Mr. Jefferson had gone to 
other fields; but the scheme of reform was com- 
pleted along the lines which he had begun, and lit- 
tle if any departure was made from his plan. 

The subject of negro slavery was one which had 
occupied Mr. Jefferson's thoughts for many years. 
He was an original abolitionist. In the first House 
of Burgesses to which he was elected, he had caused 
to be introduced a bill in behalf of the slaves. It 
met prompt defeat. 

In the Declaration of Independence he had writ- 
ten a clause denouncing the inhuman traffic. Con- 
gress struck it out. He now prepared a carefully 
considered, but perhaps impracticable, plan for 
gradual emancipation. The outlook for the meas- 
ure was so unfavorable that he did not even have it 
introduced. His bill to prohibit the further im- 
portation of slaves passed without opposition. 

' Mr. Curtis says that sheriffs in Virginia, since that reform, have not 
been required to gouge out eyes and to bite off tlie noses of criminals. 
Since that time ! The reader of The True Thomas Jefferson derives 
some queer ideas of old Virginia from Mr. Curtis's remarkable book. 

181 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Realizing that democracy must rest upon the 
education of the masses, Mr. Jefferson formulated a 
complete system of public schools, from the pri- 
mary grade on up to the State university and a 
public library. He was too far in advance of his 
time, and his plans could not be put into operation. 
The rich man declined to tax himself to educate the 
poor man's child. In the South of to-day we not 
only educate the poor white, but we tax ourselves 
heavily to educate the negroes — another advantage 
not enjoyed by them in Africa. 

A liberal naturalization act was the work of 
Mr. Jefferson; and he was instrumental in effecting 
the removal of the State capital from Williamsburg 
to Richmond. 

Much of Mr. Jefferson's work during this period 
of reformation was done at Monticello. The state 
of Mrs. Jefferson's health was the cause of great 
anxiety. A daughter, Jane, who was fragile from 
her birth, died in September, 1775, aged about a 
year and a half. A son, born in May, 1777, died in 
June of the same year.^ 

In 1779 the four thousand captives of Sara- 
toga were sent to Virginia, and stationed 
near Charlottesville. Among them were many 
Germans, whose " divine-right " rulers of the 



1 Mr. William Eleroy Curtis, in his True Jefferson, says that all of 
the six children of Mr. Jefferson were girls. Mr. Curtis is in error, as 
he so often is. 



182 



RELIGION AND SLAVERY 

" I-and-God " sort had sold them to the foreisrn 
service. 

The manner in which Mr. Jefferson set the ex- 
ample of treating these unfortunates kindly speaks 
loudly for the native generosity of his character. 
From lieutenants up to generals, he made them 
welcome to his home, his books, his grounds, his 
gardens, his musical instruments, his philosophical 
apparatus, and his hospitable board. Evenings at 
Monticello must have been pleasant to the captives, 
who talked with Jefferson, played duets with him, 
and enjoyed his wines, fruits, and vegetables in the 
free-and-easy style which he so much enjoyed. It 
made the major-general and the baron stare when 
the young subaltern got the same treatment given 
to themselves, just as it made the diplomats first 
stare, and then howl, when Jefferson, the President, 
practised the same rule at the Executive Mansion 
in 1801. 

Madame de Reidesel, wife of General de Reide- 
sel, who was one of the prisoners, says that she was 
cruelly insulted by the ladies of Boston; and that 
the wife and daughter of another royalist (Captain 
Fenton) were stripped naked, tarred and feathered, 
and paraded through the streets of that city. 

Be this as it may, she was not insulted in Vir- 
ginia, although she rode horseback like a man — a 
trying sight, in spite of all that can be said in its 
favor. 

183 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Among the captives were musicians, including 
fiddlers, and they always spoke with enthusiasm of 
the evening concerts at Monticello. Captain Bibby 
and Mr. Jefferson played duets together; and 
Bibby used to declare, long afterward, that Jeffer- 
son was the finest amateur performer he ever heard. 



184 



CHAPTER XVI 

GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA 

When Virginia got rid of Lord Dunmore, she 
placed Patrick Henry in the vacant place; and for 
three successive terms of a year each he had been 
Chief Magistrate. 

The candidates before the Legislature to suc- 
ceed Henry were Thomas Jefferson and his old 
friend, schoolmate, and confidential correspondent 
John Page, in whose cupola at Rosewell tradition 
mistakenly says that the first draft of the Declara- 
tion of Independence was written. 

The contest was purely political; neither candi- 
date took any part in it; Mr. Jefferson was elected 
by a few votes majority; and manly John Page 
wrote him a handsome letter of congratulation. 

A big-hearted patriot was this rich master of 
Rosewell, the largest mansion in Virginia. The 
time was soon to come when the American soldiers 
would need lead; and then the Hon. John Page was 
to prove the quality of his patriotism by stripping 
the leaden roof from his grand house in order that 
Washington's muskets should not lack bullets. 

It was on June 1, 1779, that Mr. Jefferson en- 
185 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

tered upon his duties as Governor of Virginia; and 
his biographer gets the idea that this was one of- 
fice that he afterward regretted having accepted. 

Away from the halls where statesmen debate 
and vote; away from the quiet rooms where laws 
are changed and peaceful reforms planned; away 
from hearth and home, from sunny field, and rum- 
bling mill, and busy mart of trade, let us look to 
the camp where the soldier sleeps, the road along 
which he marches, the battle wherein he fights. 
The brain may conceive, and the tongue proclaim, 
and the pen record; but it is the sword which must 
transform dreams into facts, declarations into 
deeds. 

We look back through the gathering mists of 
the years, and we see, as in a dim and distant vi- 
sion, the hurrying events of the great struggle for 
independence. 

We see the dead and dying heroes of Lexington 
and Concord borne off the field to clean New Eng- 
land homes; we hear the wails of wives and chil- 
dren as the blood of the martyrs drips upon the 
floor. 

We hear the shouts of fury as the minutemen 
run to their guns. We see the British scurry along 
the road back to Boston, dropping, dropping — by 
the dozens, by the scores, by the hundreds — be- 
tween two lines of fire. 

186 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA 

We see England's army shut up in the city, and 
held there by militia whose leaders are lawyers, 
doctors, farmers, mechanics. 

We witness the charges of the British regulars 
against the Yankee militia at Bunker Hill — the two 
which fail, the third which wins — and we see the 
unbroken Yankees, out of ammunition, slowly leave 
a field where the glory of the substantial triumph 
is theirs. 

We see the eager faces at doors and windows as 
Washington rides by to Cambridge; we see the 
gleam of his sword, under the great elm, as he takes 
command of the army. 

We see the line of steel drawn about the British 
in Boston; we watch the fleet as it sails away to 
Halifax. 

The gallant Irishman Richard Montgomery 
comes down Lake Champlain and takes Montreal. 
Benedict Arnold rushes to join him with twelve 
hundred men, through the frozen woods of Maine 
— an awful, awful march. 

They unite, Montgomery and Arnold, and assail 
Quebec. By the veriest, narrowest chance they 
fail. A sailor, who had run from his post, as the 
other British sentries had done, turns back in the 
driving snow-storm of this last December night of 
1775 and touches off a grape-charged cannon. The 
discharge sweeps away the head of the American 
column, killing or wounding every man who 

187 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

marches at the front save Aaron Burr. Montgom- 
ery is among the slain. 

Day is just dawning, January 1, 1776. Panic 
sets in; there is no competent man to take the dead 
leader's place. Burr shouts " Go on! Go on! " but 
the ofiQcers refuse to budge — talk while they should 
be acting. The British recover from their surprise, 
return in force, and all is over. The small Ameri- 
can force is put to flight. 

We see the British fleet come back, and hover 
about New York. The battle of Long Island is 
fought; Washington is defeated, and loses a thou- 
sand prisoners. He is hemmed in by overwhelming 
numbers. Can he escape? 

Brave Nathan Hale takes his life in his hands 
and goes into the British lines to gather informa- 
tion for the desperately situated Americans. A 
Tory relative knows him through his disguise, and 
denounces him as a spy. " I regret only that I have 
but one life to give to my country," says the hero 
as he goes to his death. 

The British general is the slowest of mortals, 
and, withal, a good Whig. Sydney George Fisher 
and others suspect that Howe did not really wish 
to be too hard on Washington. 

Not conscious of this premeditated lenity, 
Washington is most anxious for his army, and on 
the first foggy night he slips away. 

The negro whom the Tory woman sent, during 
188 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA 

the night, to tell Howe that Washington was mov- 
ing off fell into the hands of Hessians, who could 
no more understand the negro than the negro could 
understand them; so the messenger was kept un- 
der Hessian guard until the morning, at which time 
the message was stale — for Washington had gone 
hj boat to New York. 

Howe gets in motion, at last, captures New 
York, beats Washington at White Plains, takes 
Fort Washington and its garrison of twenty-five 
hundred men — a stunning blow. 

Washington reels through the Jerseys, and 
black despair hovers over Valley Forge. 

Will no friends be raised to us in other parts 
of the world? Have human hearts in foreign lands 
no generous sympathy, no heroic enthusiasm? 

We turn to Canada — perhaps the helping hand 
will be stretched to us from there. Charles Car- 
roll, of Carrollton, glorious patriot of Maryland, 
wuU brave the hardships of a pilgrimage through 
the wilderness — Benjamin Franklin going, too, in 
spite of his seventy years. All to no purpose. 
Canadian Catholics have been affronted by certain 
congressional publications, and England makes 
them timely concession; Canadians will stay at 
home, and mind their own business. 

But from other lands aid comes. 

The Dutch will lend us money and give us coun- 
tenance, being the first of all the world to do so. 

189 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

General Lafayette will come from France — 
come in spite of all attempts of King and relatives 
to prevent him. Poland will send her immortals 
— Kosciusko and Pulaski, hearts of gold. De 
Kalb will come, Steuben will come. 

Ireland will send men who know how to die; 
and France will, at a later day, range her lilies be- 
side our stars. 

Generous enthusiasm for liberty, for democracy 
— it burned brightly in those old days! Those were 
days in which soldiers believed they fought to es- 
tablish a new system of government on this caste- 
cursed earth. 

The great war moves on. Washington dashes 
through a snow-storm and captures the one thou- 
sand Hessians at Trenton. Encouraging, but not 
decisive. 

Burgoyne surrenders at Saratoga. Again en- 
couraging, but not by any means decisive; Pro- 
fessor Creasy to the contrary, notwithstanding. 

With varying fortunes, battles are fought. Now 
and then Washington wins; the rule is that he does 
not win. Factions divide congressional councils. 
There is a plot to throw Washington out. Savan- 
nah falls, Charleston falls; Boston is the only con- 
siderable port in our hands. Mad Anthony Wayne 
makes a brilliant dash at Stony Point; but the 
place is not held a week. Gates is annihilated 
at Camden. The heavens are black, the patriotic 

190 



GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA 

pulse beats low; the faint-hearted are ready to 
give up. 

Benedict Arnold believes that Congress has been 
unjust to him, and the splendid soldier becomes a 
traitor. Almost the American cause is ruined; al- 
most, but not quite. Great Britain can buy Arnold, 
the officer; it has not gold enough to buy the hum- 
ble farmers who nab Andre. His fine watch, his 
gold, his frantic offers of wealth, avail nothing 
against these stern patriots of the North. He has 
taken his risk, he has lost, he must pay. High on 
the gibbet he swings, like any other spy; and Ar- 
nold flees to his traitor's reward, glad to escape 
with his life. West Point is safe. 

Thomas Paine can be heard through the gloom, 
the burden of his song being, " Never say die! " As 
far as inspired pen can go in sustaining a cause, 
his goes. Indeed, it is " a time that tries men's 
souls." 

Looming above all, we see the grand figure of 
Washington, steady as a stone mountain. No dan- 
ger daunts him; no disaster shakes him. The times 
call for patience; he has it. For resources, he finds 
them. For courage and fortitude; his never fail. 
For splendid self-sacrifice; he makes it. Beaten to- 
day, he will fight again to-morrow. Undermined by 
treason, discouraged by apathy, fretted by Con- 
gress and by State governors, he locks it all in his 
own breast, and to the enemy presents the unruf- 

191 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

fled front. He will not hear of compromise. He 
will stoop to no concessions. When his nephew 
writes him that some British officers have been en- 
tertained at Mount Vernon as a matter of policy, 
he writes a rebuke. Let them burn the house if 
they will; Mount Vernon shall not give shelter to 
the British! 

Heroic? Yes, sublimely heroic. The world has 
presented no finer spectacle. 

And that which is the most inspiring in the 
glorious example is the fact that Washington's 
greatness was not due so much to intellect as to 
character. He was great because he was brave, 
resolute, pure, devoted, right-minded, and right- 
hearted. From the straight line of duty he w^as not 
to be tempted, frightened, discouraged, or misled. 
And from the oracle of fate he would not take No 
for answer. He would fight till he won, or till he 
died. Thus he rose above all rivals — not thinking 
of rivalry. He became not our greatest intellect, 
not our greatest statesman, not our greatest sol- 
dier, but out greatest man. 



192 



CHAPTER XVII 

PAUL JONES 

We look out toward the sea, and we wonder 
whether any light of hope can be there, where the 
English have so long domineered, and the colonies 
have neither ships of war nor sailors trained in 
fight. 

Who is this that starts out from his Virginia 
home to hold " the ocean lists " " against a world 
in mail"? Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts, 
wrote a two-volume history of the American Revo- 
lution, gave a page of text to Paul Revere, besides 
the pages of pictures, and to John Paul Jones he 
gave — how much? Just one sentence! 

Woodrow Wilson wrote a five-volume book; he 
gavei six pages of pictures and text to " the Bos- 
ton Massacre "; and to John Paul Jones he gave — 
two pages, one for the picture and one for the text. 

And yet it would seem that the first naval hero 
who ever baptized the Stars and Stripes in the fire 
of ocean battle and ocean triumph — doing it 
against the greatest sea power on earth — deserved 
more space in national history than the easy ride 
of a courier, or the doings of a street mob. 
14 193 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

We see the small black-haired, black-eyed young- 
ster start out from old Fredericksburg and begin 
his work as lieutenant. (December, 1775.) 

We see him haul up to the masthead of the 
Providence "the first flag that ever flew from a 
regularly commissioned war-ship of the United 
Colonies of America." 

We see him rise to the command of the ship; 
and with her cruise for prizes in Newfoundland 
waters, where he takes sixteen, and wins his earli- 
est laurels. With the Alfred, he again roams the 
sea for prizes, and gains them. His service to the 
cause is valuable, even brilliant, but he yearns for 
larger fields and deeds of greater daring. We see 
this bold Scotchman beg Congress for a sea-fight- 
er's task; we see him get on board a little wooden 
tub carrying eighteen guns; and the Ranger steers 
for the British Isles. 

In the Irish Channel she cruises fearlessly; at 
Whitehaven the glare of burning shipping tells the 
startled English that the colonies propose to carry 
the torch across the sea. At Carrickfergus the 
twenty-gun sloop of war Drake is fought and cap- 
tured; and the dauntless Jones sails away to 
France, dragging after him in triumph the British 
war-vessel and a string of captured merchantmen. 
In 1779 we see the colonies retaliate on Great 
Britain the coast ravages from which America had 
suffered. It is John Paul Jones who lets England 

194 



PAUL JONES 

see from her own homes what war is. With an 
old patched-iip Indiauman, hastily converted into a 
fighting ship, and three other merchantmen turned 
into war-vessels — all these being furnished us by 
France — the coasts of Great Britain are thrown 
into such an excitement as they had not known 
since the days when Van Tromp swept the Chan- 
nel with his broom. 

Read the introduction to Scott's Waverley, 
and note how great is the terror of the natives when 
Jones's little fleet comes sailing into the Frith of 
Forth. Great, great is the relief when God seems 
to answer frantic prayers by sending the gale which 
sweeps Jones out to sea. 

Only a few days later he is back again, this time 
in the river Humber, where again he destroys Eng- 
lish vessels. Then comes the immortal fight with 
the Serapis. 

In the annals of war, on land or sea, there is 
nothing like it — nothing that rivals it in bulldog 
pluck and intelligent desperation. 

The Serapis is a heavier craft than the Bon 
Homme Richard — carries more guns, better guns, 
more men, and better men. The hope of the Rich- 
ard is John Paul Jones. At the very first fire, 
two of the old guns on the Richard burst, killing a 
dozen men. All that part of the ship and arma- 
ment is abandoned. Only the guns on the upper 
deck can now be used— her 12-pounders throw- 

195 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

ing but 204 pounds on a broadside when the Sera- 
pis hurls 300 pounds. So the fight goes on, nearly 
an hour. Maneuvering for position, both ships 
cease firing; and the British captain, Pearson, calls 
out, " Have you struck your colors? " 

Through the darkness, for it is night, comes back 
the voice of Jones, " I have not yet begun to fight! " 

Together come the two ships, and Jones lashes 
them with a rope. The head of the one lies oppo- 
site the stern of the other. Grappling-hooks reen- 
force the hold of the ropes. In deadly embrace the 
two ships are locked; and now it is such a battle 
as old ocean has never seen. 

Yard-arms interlocked, some of the guns useless 
for lack of space to handle the rammers, broad- 
sides thunder, and balls rake the decks at point- 
blank range. Timbers are shivered, cannon torn 
from carriages, the boards covered with the dying 
and the dead. 

The September moon floods land and sea. On 
the coast clusters of people watch the battle. The 
beacon light of Flamborough Head glares across 
the waters; and those who are on the ships can see 
the fortress of Scarborough Castle and the English 
vessels which nestle under its guns. 

The Richard seems a beaten ship. One side is 
blown out where the guns had burst; the decks 
above had been shattered; one by one the cannon 
are silenced; from the mainmast aft the whole 

196 



PAUL JONES 

side is beaten in; shot from the Serapis pass clean 
through; transoms are linocked out, stern frames 
cut to pieces; only a few stanchions hold up the 
decks. 

To add to the terror of the night, fire breaks out 
time and again. 

And, strangest of all, the commander of one of 
the smaller vessels of Jones's fleet, a crazy French 
captain, Landais, sails up to the combatants and 
pours three broadsides into — the English? No — 
into the astounded Americans! Then he sails away, 
leaving killed and wounded as the fruit of his visit. 

The guns in the main battery have fired their 
last shots. The Richard begins to leak. The car- 
penter loses his head, and begins to shriek: "We 
sink! We sink!" 

The master-at-arms thinks all is over. He re- 
leases the prisoners, and cries out: "To the decks, 
everybody! The ship is sinking! " 

The English prisoners scramble up the hatch- 
ways, fighting desperately with each other to reach 
the deck. The carpenter runs, screaming: " Quar- 
ter! Quarter!" Panic is about to seize the whole 
crew. Frantically the carpenter tries to haul down 
the flag. Officers and men call out to Jones that 
he must surrender. The British hear the uproar, 
and again Pearson calls, " Have you struck? " 

" No! " shouts Jones, as he dashes out the brains 
of the carpenter with the butt of a pistol. 

197 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

The British try to board the Richard. Jones 
rallies his men, meets the boarders pike in hand, 
and drives them back. 

The fight grows more desperate than ever. Offi- 
cers and men go back to their posts. British pris- 
oners are made to work the pumps. Others fight 
fire. The surgeon advises Jones to give it up; 
water has overflowed the cockpit; the ship can not 
be fought longer; her battery is silenced. 

Jones makes a jest of it — calls for the doctor 
to lend a hand in placing a gun. He himself helps 
to drag it in position. Only three 9-pounders, on 
the upper deck, are left in action. These he trains 
upon the mainmast of the Serapis. 

What is this huge black shadow which comes 
gliding in between the two fighters and the harvest 
moon? 

It is the crazy Landais again. In spite of cries 
of warning, in spite of the private night signals that 
the Richard displays, the addled Frenchman pours 
three broadsides into the almost dismantled 
Richard ! 

And again Landais sails away, leaving killed 
and wounded on the American deck as the fruit of 
his visit. 

By sheer force of will and indomitable pluck, 
Jones drives the men back to their places, and the 
fight goes on. 

Sharpshooters are in the rigging picking off 
198 



PAUL JONES 

every Englishman who shows his head. Hand- 
grenades are pitched into the port-holes to destroy 
the gunners at their guns. Away out on the yard- 
arm of the Bon Homme Richard crawls a daring 
sailor w^ho drops a bomb through the hatchway of 
the Serapis, where it explodes a row of cartridges 
lying on the main deck. Twenty-eight of the Eng- 
lish are killed or desperately wounded. 

This is the turning-point in the battle. The 
British can not recover from the blow. Their fire 
slackens. The American ship is really in the worse 
plight of the two; but they fight on with ferocious 
persistence, and the British do not know that the 
Americans are about to sink. 

An English prisoner makes his way from Jones's 
ship to the Serapis to tell them there to fight on — 
that the Richard is beaten. 

He is too late by the merest fraction of time. 

Pearson has lost heart. He tears down his flag, 
and calls out that he has struck. 

Richard Dale, of the American ship, knows the 
value of hurry, of decision, and he gives Pearson 
no chance to reconsider. 

Even while the British lieutenant is trying to 
wedge in a word of remonstrance, and doing his 
best to tell his superior officer the true state of 
affairs on the Richard, the importunate Dale ha- 
stens Pearson on board the American ship, a pris- 
oner. 

199 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

For fear the lieutenant may run below and start 
the Serapis to firing again, Dale forces him to fol- 
low Pearson. 

After all the heroism, the skill, and the carnage, 
the final result turns on the nerve of Jones and the 
presence of mind of Dale. 

It is a death-strewn deck where the short, slen- 
der Jones, hatless, bleeding from a wound in the 
face, and begrimed with powder stains, stands 
proudly with his drawn sword in his hand to receive 
the formal surrender of the British captain. 

The light of the autumn moon is above him; the 
light of his burning ship is behind him. His poor 
old Richard is a wreck, torn almost into splinters; 
it is filling with water; it is literally choked with 
the dead; the deck upon which he stands is slip- 
pery with blood. 

But it is the Englishman who gives up his sword, 
and it is the Stars and Stripes that still flies at the 
masthead. 

After the Serapis surrenders to the Richard, it 
is the Richard which sinks. Jones and his crew 
and his English prisoners all pass over to the cap- 
tured Serapis. 

The two vessels have hardly been loosened from 
their long death-grapple before the Richard slowly 
settles to her long home in the deep. 

This victory, won in sight of the English coast, 
resounds throughout the civilized world. 

200 



PAUL JONES 

The Empress of Russia and the Kings of Den- 
mark and of France honor him with ribbons and 
orders of merit which amount to nothing, and pen- 
sions which were never paid; but so far as fame is 
a reward, Paul Jones reaps it. He is spoken of 
with admiration in every gazette, cafe, salon, and 
street group in the Old World and the New. 

In generous England he is denounced as a pi- 
rate; and Holland is asked to give him up that he 
may be hung. The Dutch refuse; but, to save 
that people from the effects of British wrath, Jones 
seeks safety in France. 

Note. — It is well known that Admiral Paul Jones served for a 
short time Catherine of Russia, in her naval warfare against the Turks. 
Official jealousy embittered his career and denied to him his Just recog- 
nition. Disgusted with the Russian service, the great sea-captain re- 
turned to Paris, where he spent his last days. He lived modestly, and 
much alone, but not in want as has been stated. He received many 
marks of friendship from Americans who were in Paris, and was not 
neglected in his last illness. Gouverneur Morris drew up his last will, 
and was one of the regular visitors during the final days. But Jones 
was alone when he died ; and the American Minister, Gouverneur Mor- 
ris, did not attend the funeral. Paul Jones was no friend to the French 
Revolution, but the Revolutionary government did what the American 
Minister did not do— honored the dead hero by attending his funeral. 

It certainly was a queer spectacle — Gouverneur Morris issuing orders 
for the cheapest, most private burial, and then hastening away to pre- 
side at a dinner-party ; while the French Assembly takes official notice 
of the death, selects a deputation of twelve members to attend the 
burial, and provides a military escort to follow the body of the immortal 
warrior to his grave. 

In his diary, Morris tries to defend himself. He intimates that 
Jones left such a small estate that the heirs would have had the right 
to grumble had there been a public funeral. Yet the estimated value 
of Jones's estate was $30,000; and this included more than $6,000 in the 
Bank of North America. Morris knew this, for he had scheduled the 
property. There is no evidence that Morris was justified in his extreme 

201 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

anxiety lest the heirs should gruinble ; and the fact that Jones was so 
cheaply and obscurely buried that his grave can not now be found, and 
could not be marked with a monument even if Congress wanted to mark 
it, is due to Gouverneur Morris, the American Minister who ordered 
the cheapest and most private funeral— to Morris the cold-hearted 
snob who preferred to guzzle wine with brother snobs at a dinner-table, 
rather than represent his country in paying the last sad token of respect 
to the bravest seaman that ever fought under our flag. 



202 



CHAPTER XVIII 

WAR IN THE SOUTH 

The war grows more savage. The French alli- 
ance enrages Great Britain, and the English begin 
to ravage, burn, slay in cold blood, committing 
every outrage known to war. 

Prisoners are barbarously maltreated, women 
suffer nameless wrongs, men who have surrendered 
are mercilessly butchered. 

This frightful change in the methods of the war 
is felt most in the South. 

British marauders break into Virginia, and go 
out unhurt, Patrick Henry being Governor. They 
break in again and sack Richmond, the traitor Ar- 
nold in command, and go forth unpunished, Mr. 
Jefferson being Governor. 

Virginia has been stripped, exhausted, to supply 
Washington at the North and Gates at the South; 
yet many accuse Mr. Jefferson of negligence and 
incompetence for not rallying a home-guard and 
giving battle to save Richmond. 

Had Mr. Jefferson been a John Sevier, James 
Robertson, or Andrew Jackson, he might have done 

203 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

better; but it is reasonably certain that no gov- 
ernor who was not a military genius could have pre- 
pared the scattered militia and led it successfully 
against this sudden invasion. 

It is true that Washington had sent warning 
that a British fleet was making toward Virginia; 
but the water-front of Virginia is so vast, a fleet 
can strike at so many different places, that it was 
impossible to know when and where to have the 
militia assemble. 

In the lower Southern States the situation has 
a peculiarity all its own. There is no large Ameri- 
can army under the general command of some over- 
shadowing figure; but there are a dozen small 
armies, flying columns, under chiefs whose names 
are almost unknown to history, but whose services 
are of priceless value to the cause. 

As a rule, these partizan bands have nothing to 
do with Washington's movements, nor he with 
theirs. As a rule, he knows nothing of what they 
intend to do until it is done. As a rule, they call 
on him for no help of any kind, nor does Congress 
bear the burden of their necessities. Generally 
they draw their supplies from the territory in 
which they operate. Horses, guns, ammunition, 
food, recruits — all come from the Southern colonies. 

Chief of these partizan leaders is General 
Francis :Marion, "the Swamp Fox"; next is Gen- 
eral Thomas Sumpter, " the Game-Cock " — heroes 

204 




FEANt'IS MAEIOX. 



WAR IN THE SOUTH 

of South Carolina. Second to these come such men 
as Pickens, Horry, Lacey, Hampton, and Hender- 
son. 

In North Carolina there are such dashing 
leaders as Sevier, Shelby, Ashe, Williams, and Mc- 
Dowell. 

In Georgia the bands are led and fought by 
Generals Elijah Clarke, John Twiggs, James Jack- 
son, Lachlan Mcintosh, James Screven, Samuel El- 
bert, and John White. 

These partizan leaders are ever in the saddle. 
Savannah may fall, Augusta and Charleston may 
surrender, but the British conquest stops at the 
limit of the British camp. In the interior, resist- 
ance holds its head up all the time. The flag never 
ceases to fly. 

In vain Cornwallis comes with huge regiments; 
in vain Tarleton and Ferguson raid and ravage the 
land; they can not stamp out the rebellion. Heavy 
battalions may win this battle and that battle; but 
on the morrow will come Marion and Sumpter, and 
Twiggs and Clarke to fight again. 

Chase these partizans from Georgia, and they 
give battle in the Carolinas. Chase them from the 
Carolinas, and they are back in Georgia, as ready 
for the fray as before. 

A score of Southern leaders fight as many 
pitched battles which are not so much as mentioned 
in the books of general history; and some of these 

205 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

fights were brilliant little victories for the Amer- 
ican cause. 

The triumph of Elijah Clarke and Samuel Ham- 
mond over a portion of Ferguson's command at 
Cedar Springs in July, 1780; the success of these 
officers, aided by Williams and Shelby, at Mus- 
groves' Mill in August, 1780, were the important 
preludes to that crowning achievement which was 
soon to follow. 



206 



CHAPTER XIX 
king's mountain 

But what avails all this partizan warfare? 
What good does it accomplish? 

The flying columns gallop from field to field, 
dodge from swamp to swamp. What is the net re- 
sult? 

Let us look over the Southern territory in the 
year 1780, when all is so dark at the North — so 
dark that even Washington almost despairs. 

British emissaries have sent the Creeks on the 
war-path, and the soldiers of Georgia have to go 
and rout them in pitched battles. The Cherokees 
are also aroused; and they have to be put down by 
the men of the Carolinas. 

This danger to the Southern flank had come, just 
as Mcintosh had written Washington he feared. 
But the Indians had been whipped, and the partizan 
bands turn once more to the British. 

We see Ferguson sent out from Cornwallis's 
main army; we trace him by the smoke of burning 
homes, the shrieks of those who fly, the groans of 
those who die. His path is one of desolation. We 
see the men of the mountains muster; they have 

207 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

been threatened by Ferguson, and they take up his 
glove. From valley to valley runs the call to arms 
— the fiery cross of the Highlands never sped more 
swiftly to summons the clans. 

And they came, these mountaineers of the 
South. Congress has not ordered them; Washing- 
ton has not ordered them; it is a rally of volunteers. 
Under Sevier and Shelby and McDowell and Cleve- 
land and Campbell they mount and they ride. 
Through mountain pass and over plain, through 
swamp and forest, over swollen streams which 
have not bridge or ferry, on they ride — to find Fer- 
guson. Day after day, in fair weather and foul, 
with bloody spur and tightened rein, they ride — 
seeking Ferguson. The weak man gives out and 
is left behind; the weak horse gives out and is left 
behind. The strong man on the strong horse spurs 
onward, with never a thought but to find Ferguson, 
to fight Ferguson, and to conquer him or die. 

And he knows they are on his track, and he feels 
his peril. Back, back to Cornwallis! Hurry, cou- 
riers, to Ninety-six for help! See him falter, see 
him double and turn, see his efforts to get back to 
the main army! 

Almost, almost the men of the mountains had 
taken the wrong road. A watchful patriot sees the 
danger— averts it. Away gallops Edward Lacey, 
thirty miles through the night, to put the mountain 
men right. 

208 



KING'S MOUNTAIN 

"Not that road! Not that! This road, this 
road! And, oh, men of the mountains, ride, ride! " 

Well done, Edward Lacey! 

Not more fateful was the act of the shepherd 
lad who showed Bliicher's tired troops the short cut 
across the muddy fields to Waterloo! 

South Carolinians gallop to join the mountain- 
eers; a band of Georgians join the hunt. 

He can not escape, he must stand and fight — 
with Ferguson it has come to that. On King's 
Mountain he stops — brought to bay. 

Here he will entrench himself, here he will 
await the reenforcements that are pressing the 
roads to reach him. Only a day's delay, and all 
will be well. 

But with one final push onward, through the 
night and through the rain, the mountain men are 
upon him — volunteers of Virginia, Georgia, the 
Carolinas! 

They neither hesitate nor parley; they hitch 
their horses to the trees; like a girdle of steel they 
clasp the mountain; and up they go, at the enemy — 
rifles blazing as they advance, and the Southern 
yell ringing through the woods. 

They are less than a thousand; the British nearly 
twelve hundred; but they have come to win, believe 
they can win, and the order is to fight till every 
man is dead, and the watchword is "Buford!" 

"Shoot like hell, and fight like devils!" cries 
15 209 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Campbell. And the watchword is " Buford," where 
Tarletou cut down the patriot who bore the flag of 
truce, and butchered men who had ceased to fight. 

" Remember Buford! " And let every man fight 
till he dies! 

No braver soldier than Ferguson stood there 
that day. Taken by surprise, attacked when his 
scout had just reported that no enemy was in sight, 
he sprang upon his horse, had the drums beat to 
arms, made ready to defend the hill to the last. 
Like Stonewall Jackson, at a later day, he believed 
in the bayonet, and he had more than once gained 
a day with it. Now as the Southern men came 
against him he would try it again. The mountain 
thundered with musketry; and then bayonets were 
leveled, and the lines advanced "to give them the 
cold steel." The Americans had no bayonets, and 
before this advancing line they gave way. The sil- 
ver whistle of Ferguson sounds, the British and 
Tories return to their hill, and the mountaineers — 
rallied to a man — pour in rifle volleys hotter than 
ever. 

Dead Tories litter the ground; men and horses 
fall about their leader; again the silver whistle 
sounds; again the word is, "Give them the bayo- 
net!" It is done; and the patriot ranks give back 
as before. But the instant the Tory line stops, rifle 
play begins, and men drop under its deadly aim. 
Some Tory runs up a white flag. Ferguson cuts it 

210 



KING'S MOUNTAIN 

down. The fight goes on, he rides back and forth 
encouraging his men, two horses are shot under 
him, he mounts a third, and he gallops to another 
part of the line and cuts down another white flag. 
But the day goes against him, and he knows it. 
Reenforcements do not come; Cornwallis sends 
none; Cruger, from Ninety-six, sends none; Tories 
of the neighborhood send none. Desperate, per- 
haps despairing, he dashes against the American 
line where it seems to be weakest — and meets a 
soldier's death. 

That ends it. The white flag — a dozen — rise on 
the British side, for white handkerchiefs are waved 
from bayonets in every direction. 

Ferguson dead, his army captured or dead, no 
man escaped, saving the few who may have slipped 
away in Whig disguise^ — the white badge on the 
hat. 

So it w^as in October, 1780, that one of the de- 
cisive battles of the Revolution was won by South- 
ern volunteers. 



211 



CHAPTER XX 



YORKTOWN 



King's Mountain electrified every patriot, dis- 
heartened every royalist. After that, all was in- 
creasingly bright, till the final scene at Yorktown. 
At the Cowpens we see the Southern men again, 
led by the same stanch Morgan who had led the 
Virginians to the Continental army. On that day 
Washington met them as he rode down the lines; 
Morgan saluted and reported, and his words were, 
" From the right bank of the Potomac, general." 
On each breast was the badge " Libert if or Death! " 

Washington got off his horse, walked down the 
line, and shook hands with every man! 

It is Tarleton now at the Cowpens, not Fer- 
guson; Tarleton the dashing and fearless; Tarle- 
ton who refused quarter to Buford's men, cutting 
them down in sheer brutality when they had ceased 
to fight — slaying even the bearer of the flag of 
truce. It is Tarleton, fearless as ever; and he al- 
most wins the day at the Cowpens— but not quite. 
In the very moment of his triumph, when his seem 
ingly victorious troops are flushed with confidence 

212 



YORKTOWN 

and are in disorder, John Eager Howard wheels the 
Maryland line, and ^Villiam Washington hurls the 
Virginia horse on the flank and rear. Caught be- 
tween the two, the British are ground to powder — 
Tarleton flies the field. Another wing of Cornwal- 
lis's army has been destroyed! 

Now for the supreme test! Main army to main 
army; Cornwallis against Greene! 

The British had been reenforced, were too strong 
for us, and the Americans had to retreat — fast and 
hard. It was a life-and-death race, in the depth of 
winter, amid terrible hardships. The men were 
barefooted, almost naked, almost starved, pitiable 
to look upon as they marched. But they marched! 
The stomach was empty, the body was in rags, the 
feet dripped blood — but they marched! Had it not 
been for the sudden rains which flooded the rivers, 
just in time to delay the British after the Ameri- 
cans had crossed, there might have been another 
Camden. And the country was not prepared to 
stand another Camden. 

Finally, Cornwallis grew weary of the chase and 
stopped at the Dan; then he began to retire, and 
Greene followed, " to convince the Carolinians that 
they were not conquered." 

Light-Horse Harry Lee cut to pieces a body of 
Tories on the Haw; and finally (March 15, 1781), 
the army which had been chased were eager to com- 
bat the chasers. Guilford Court-House, in result, 

213 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

was an American victory, for it was necessary to 
the British plan of campaign that they should tri- 
umph, and they did not triumph. Greene turned 
south to free the land from the English, while 
Cornwallis went north — toward Yorktown. We 
see Virginia ravaged by the enemy, its Legislature 
scattered to the woods, its Governor riding for his 
life. We see Cornwallis's raiders destroy Jeffer- 
son's property, cut the throats of his blooded colts, 
drive off his slaves to die of smallpox on British 
ships. We observe that at first Cornwallis does 
the advancing and chasing, while Lafayette and 
the Americans give way — at a high rate of speed. 
Then we see the tables turned. The British stop, 
then retire, and the Americans entrench at Mal- 
vern Hill. How could Cornwallis know that York- 
town was a trap? Washington was busy with Clin- 
ton at New York, and no French fleet was in sight. 
How could Cornwallis know that Congress and 
Washington had grown impatient at Franklin's in- 
activity in Paris, and had speeded John Laurens, 
of South Carolina, across the ocean for more help? 
How could he know that Laurens had boldly pressed 
his mission, had secured half a million dollars in 
hard cash, and that the money and the ships were 
moving as Washington had planned? 

So Cornwallis retires into Yorktown and en- 
trenches. The Americans close in, to hold him 
there. But why can not British ships from New 

214 




JOHK LAURENS. 



YORKTOWN 

York come down and take Cornwallis out by sea? 
They can, if they will realize the value of time. 

Washington slips away from Clinton? Yes; but 
what hinders Clinton from boarding ships, spread- 
ing canvas, and hastening to the Chesapeake? 

Days pass, weeks pass, eager eyes scan the wa- 
ters. Washington's fate depends upon France and 
her ships. Cornwallis's fate depends upon Clinton 
and his ships. Which will come first? Out of the 
depths of the sea who will come, British or French? 
Local tradition says that when at length the masts 
of the war fleet were seen from the shore, no one 
could distinguish the flags, no one knew for certain 
what ships they were. Cornwallis hoped that they 
were English; Washington that they were French. 
It is life or death. Whose are the ships? 

Tradition tells you that transports put out from 
the shore, and made toward the distant fleet, closer 
and closer, to distinguish the colors. 

Few chapters in American history are more dra- 
matic than this — the waiting and watching of the 
two armies, the anxious eyes which day by day 
swept the bay, looking for the expected ships; the 
appearance of the fleet on the far horizon, the 
dreadful doubt as to what ships they were, the go- 
ing out of the transports, the waiting for their re- 
turn, and then the sinking of hearts in the one camp 
and the bursting forth of joy in the other when the 
transports returned and the word was shouted from 

215 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

lip to lip: " The French! The French! Thank God, 
the French!" 

We all know the rest of the story. British ships 
afterward come, but are beaten off. The lines 
tighten about the doomed army. There is bombard- 
ing and musketry, attack and counter-attack; but 
the American lines never go backward. Finally, 
the storming parties draw out, and the clinch, the 
tug of the war, comes. We see the French doing 
their level best to outstrip the Americans in the 
dash at the British works. We see the first man 
mount the parapet. It is Alexander Hamilton. We 
see the first man enter the works, and receive the 
sword of the first British officer who surrenders. 
It is John Laurens. Others do as well — Rocham- 
beau, Lafayette, Lauzun — and at length the Com- 
mander-in-Chief can say, " The work is done, and 
well done!" 



216 



CHAPTER XXI 

THE SOUTH IN THE WAR 

During the siege of Yorktown, Washington 
had wished to spare the fine old family mansion of 
Governor Thomas Nelson, but that fiery patriot 
would not accept such discrimination. The British 
officers had taken up their quarters in the house, it 
being the best in Yorktown; and Governor Page 
himself had the guns of the American battery 
trained on the family home, offering a reward of 
five guineas to the first gunner who should strike 
it. The Nelsons had been among the original set- 
tlers of Yorktown, and so far as its upbuilding is 
concerned may be called its founders. The Mar- 
quis of Chastellux, who was entertained there dur- 
ing his travels, describes the elegance and luxury 
of the Nelson home, and paints an attractive pic- 
ture of the Southern high life of that period. 

It was Thomas Nelson who succeeded Mr. 
Jefferson as Governor of Virginia; and the place 
proved as burdensome to the one as it had done to 
the other. Nelson's patriotism was like that of 
John Page and so many others — it counted no cost. 
Like Page, he was one of the wealthiest of men at 

217 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

the beginning of the struggle; like Page, the end 
of the war found him bankrupt. When Virginia 
had no money and no credit, he went down into his 
own pocket, and he strained his own credit, to get 
funds to pay the soldiers, food to feed them, and 
ammunition for their guns. 

After the peace, when the Virginia Convention 
was debating whether British debts should be con- 
fiscated, it was Nelson who settled the question 
with the manly speech: ''Others may do as they 
please; but as for me, I am an honest man, and so 
help me God! I will pay my debts." His property 
was enormous, but so were his liabilities; and, in 
the end, the whole estate was swept away, leaving 
his blind widow destitute in her old age.^ 



How deplorable it is to see Professor Channing, 
of Harvard, in his Student's History, lending the 
influence of his name and position to perpetrate 
sectional prejudice and injustice! What possible 
good can come of such statements as he makes on 
page 217 of his book? 

The South easier to conquer than the North? 
The " Southerners able to make but slight resist- 
ance "? Was it so much worse for the South to 
lose Charleston and Savannah than it was for the 
North to lose New York and Philadelphia? Cam- 

' The Old South, by Thomas Nelson Page. 

218 



THE SOUTH IN THE WAR 

den was bad, but was Long Island good? Was 
Germantown good? Was the capture of Fort 
Washington good? In 1780 did not Washington 
write that he was almost at the end of his tether, 
and that unless a change came it would be impos- 
sible to hold the army together? From whence 
came the change? First, Musgroves' Mill, a victory 
of Carolinians and Georgians, led by Elijah Clark, 
of Georgia, and Shelby, Williams, and Branham, of 
the Carolinas (August, 1780). Second, King's Moun- 
tain, wholly the triumph of Southern men, October, 
1780. Third, the Cowpens, January, 1781. 

This list leaves out Blackstock, where Caro- 
linians, under Sumpter, and Georgians, under 
Twiggs, whipped Tarleton; Kettle Creek, where 
Pickens and Clark routed Boyd; Fishdam, where 
the British were repulsed by Sumpter and Twiggs; 
and scores of other skirmishes, which, had they hap- 
pened in New England, would have lived in song 
and story as conflicts never to be forgotten, 

" The Southerners able to make but slight oppo- 
sition? " If that statement be true, discredit rests 
upon the South: if it be untrue, the discredit rests 
upon the author of so grave a charge. " The South- 
erners " were able to win the battles that turned 
the tide of the war, and they were able to supply to 
the cause a very handsome pro rata of good sol- 
diers. The white male population of Virginia and 
Pennsylvania over sixteen years of age was about 

219 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

the same, yet fifty-six thousand " Southerners " 
went to the front where but thirty-four thousand 
Pennsylvania ns appeared. 

New York had double the military population 
of South Carolina, while New Hampshire's was 
slightly greater, yet from this small State " the 
Southerners " who shouldered muskets outnum- 
bered the New Hampshire men more than two to 
one, and they exceeded New York's quota by twen- 
ty-nine thousand. 

Out of every forty-two of her military popula- 
tion, Massachusetts enlisted thirty-two — a splendid 
showing. But in South Carolina thirty-seven 
" Southerners " out of every forty-two " were able " 
to enlist and fight, and they did so.^ 

It is not pleasant to make such comparisons as 
this, yet the provocation is wanton, and the temp- 
tation not to be resisted. Really, if the story of our 
republic deserves to be told at all, the aim should 
be to tell the truth; and it can not be to the perma- 
nent benefit of " students," or general readers, to 
have themselves saturated with prejudice and 
error. 

Equally misleading is Professor Channing's ref- 
erence to the proposition Governor Eutledge is said 
to have made to the British. The professor's state- 
ment leaves the impression on the mind of the 

1 The South, by Dr. J. L. M. Curry— referring to General Knox's 
official estimate. 

220 



THE SOUTH IN THE WAR 

reader that the general situation in the Southern 
States was so hopeless that South Carolina pro- 
posed to lay down arms and remain neutral in the 
struggle. Collegiate bulls in historical ehina-shops 
do, indeed, make sad havoc,, and the learned Har- 
vard professor is no exception. The Rutledge letter 
was not an expression of general despondence. It 
was the tentative proposition of an oflflcial who had 
been caught unready for defense by a large Britisli 
army; and who, in the excited counsels of the mo- 
ment, sought to save the chief city of the South by 
a concession which would have rendered the Brit- 
ish conquest of no practical service to them. The 
proposition ought not to have been made, was pro- 
tested against by some of the Governor's strongest 
advisers, was disapproved by General Moultrie, and 
was spurned by John Laurens, who refused to be 
the bearer of it. It required the exertion of Gen- 
eral Moultrie's authority to get an officer who 
would carry it. The British rejected it; General 
Moultrie declared that he would fight rather than 
surrender; and his decision was heard with a burst 
of satisfaction. 

"Now, we are on our feet again!" cried John 
Laurens, and nothing could prove more conclusively 
the general feeling among those whose duty it was 
to do the fighting. 

The facts are that a British army appeared be- 
fore Charleston, catching the city unprepared. 

221 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Governor Rutledge and a majority of his council 
favored a capitulation. General Moultrie, John 
Laurens, Colonel Mcintosh, and most of the other 
officers opposed it. Rutledge and the British com- 
mander, Prevost, began to exchange notes. The 
exact terms Rutledge proposed are in dispute. Ac- 
cording to the written statement of Laurens him- 
self, the Governor's conditions, if accepted, would 
have rendered Charleston useless to the enemy. It 
certainly is significant that Prevost refused to con- 
sider them. 

Moultrie had determined to fight; his lieuten- 
ants hailed his decision with joy, the flag was waved 
to put the enemy on notice that negotiations were 
off, and his main body began to retire. 

So far were " the Southerners ■ ' from any inten- 
tion of quitting the contest that Prevost only es- 
caped capture by reason of the fact that General 
Lincoln, of Massachusetts (who finally lost Charles- 
ton), did not know how to bring up his reenforce- 
ments, which were in striking distance. It was 
Lincoln's extreme tardiness that caused Rutledge's 
predicament and his proposition— a proposition 
which there is no reason to believe that his people 
would have ratified. 



222 



CHAPTER XXII 



GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 



While the Revolutionary War was raging in 
the East and South, the Western frontier was the 
scene of many a bloody skirmish between British- 
led Indians and the white settlers who had pushed 
across the Alleghany Mountains. From headquar- 
ters at Detroit, agents of the English Government 
penetrated southward and westward, rousing the 
Indians, bribing them with rewards for scalps, un- 
til the whole of the vast wilderness along the Illi- 
nois and the Ohio was a dark and bloody ground. 
American hunters and trappers were ambushed 
and scalped; defenseless women and children in the 
lonely cabins were tomahawked and scalped. Some- 
times the white man would be carried away alive, 
to be burnt later at the stake. Sometimes the 
women and children would be led off to the woods, 
the children to grow up as savages, the women to 
become squaws of the savages. The British Gov- 
ernor at Detroit encouraged every Indian that 
roamed the woods, for the scalps were delivered 
and the rewards paid at Detroit. 

223 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

The English policy was opposed to the west- 
ward expansion of the American people. But just 
as the Carolinians had crossed over into what is 
now Tennessee, and had made good their footing 
against hostile, hard-fightiug Indians, so had men 
of the same fiber passed on into Kentucky and into 
the Illinois country. Men like Boone and Kenton 
and Clark loved the wilderness, its hunting- 
grounds, its freedom from restraint, almost as 
well as the Indians loved it. Restless, fond of ad- 
venture, impatient of system or confinement, these 
half-wild pioneers formed the skirmish-line of 
advancing civilization. What deeds of reckless 
courage they did, what shocking barbarities they 
committed, what privations they endured, what 
tragic fates so many of them met — is a story most 
eloquently told in the simplest language of bare 
fact. They carried their lives in their hands 
always; the rifle and the knife never left their 
sight. Sleepless vigilance w^as the very law of ex- 
istence — vigilance, fearlessness, and infinite re- 
source. 

In the winter of 1776-77 the struggle along the 
skirmish-line Avas one of extermination. The Brit- 
ish were bent upon driving it back to the old bor- 
ders of Pennsylvania and Virginia. Hamilton's or- 
ders were to " kill and burn." British Canadians, 
French Canadians, renegade Tories from the col- 
onies, Huron Indians, and Shawnees swooped 

224 



GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 

down upon the frontier settlements before the snow 
was off the ground. From the Monongahela to the 
Kentucky River there was guerrilla war, the burn- 
ing of houses, the massacre of settlers, the wasting 
of thrifty farms. Excepting the forts and block- 
houses, to which the panic-stricken people fled for 
shelter, the land was left desolate. 

It was during this time of terror that George 
Rogers Clark went to Patrick Henry, Governor of 
Virginia, and outlined his plan of conquest beyond 
the Ohio. He believed that he could not only hold 
the frontier which Hamilton had assailed, but that 
he could win the Illinois country beyond. The 
Revolutionary War was draining Virginia of all 
her resources, and it was not a favorable time for 
distant expeditions of conquest, but Clark found 
sympathy and support. He had been living for 
some time in Kentucky, where Daniel Boone, 
Kenton, and other almost nameless heroes were de- 
fending the soil. Born in Albemarle, Clark was 
known to Thomas Jefferson, and the bold plan of 
the young soldier captivated the statesman. Not 
only did Jefferson favor the enterprise, but George 
Mason and George Wythe did also. The Governor 
advanced six thousand dollars, furnished boats, 
supplies, and ammunition, and authorized the en- 
listment of three hundred and fifty militiamen. A 
slighter equipment never yielded larger returns. 
In May, 1778, after all sorts of difficulties and dis- 
16 225 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

couragements, Clark set out from the Kedstone set- 
tlements, stopped at Pittsburg for his supplies, 
drifted on down the Ohio, and on May 27th reached 
the falls where Louisville now stands. Here Ken- 
ton joined him with some Kentuckians. Rowing 
farther down, in June he landed near the mouth of 
the Tennessee and struck into the wilderness 
toward Kaskaskia. After a march of toil and 
difficulty he reached the fort, took it by surprise, 
gaining a bloodless victory. 

There is a dramatic story to the effect that when 
Clark's men drew near that night they found the 
fort lit up, fiddles going merrily, and the defend- 
ers tripping the light fantastic toe. Clark made 
his way to the ballroom and leaned back against the 
door, with crossed arms, looking on. An Indian, 
lying on the floor, gazed intently on Clark's face, 
then sprang up and gave the war-whoop, the un- 
earthly war-whoop. A war-whoop, by the way, 
which is not unearthly is not up to standard and is 
not allowed in the books. 

When the Indian whooped it was evidently time 
for the women to scream; and when the women 
were all screaming, it was impossible to fiddle and 
dance. 

The story goes that Clark, standing unmoved, 
arms still crossed, countenance unchanged, bade 
them "On with the dance!" — warning them, how- 
ever, that they must now dance under Virginia and 

226 



GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 

not under Great Britain. At the same time Ms men 
burst into the fort, etc. 

Mr. Roosevelt likes this story so well tji^t he 
puts it into his Winning of the "VVe6j^,-»«fTing that 
he sees no good reason for rejecting it entirely. 

For the same reason the present writer likes it, 
and has not rejected it — entirely. 

If the story had not been ended so abruptly, if 
we had been told what the fiddlers and dancers did 
after Clark gave them permission to proceed, one's 
ideas might be clearer and more satisfactory. 

But if the episode of the ballroom draws rather 
heavily upon credulity, the wonderful events which 
followed are involved in no doubts. 

A mere handful of Virginians and Kentuckians 
had ventured hundreds of miles into hostile re- 
gions, far from any supports, where enemies in 
overwhelming numbers swarmed on every side. 
The French inhabitants and garrisons of these re- 
mote towns were under British rule; British troops 
themselves might be expected at any moment; and 
powerful Indian tribes, who had no love for the 
" Long Knives " — intruders upon their hunting- 
grounds — needed but prompting and leadership to 
fall upon this little band of two hundred and de- 
stroy it. The situation was aijpalling. Yet Clark 
met it with superb skill and nerve. By a x>olicy of 
mingled firmness and kindness he won the hearts 
of the French. Their priest, Pierre Gibault, became 

227 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

his partizan, quieted every murmur at Kaskas- 
kia, volunteered to go to Vincennes, and won 
over the French inhabitants there, prevailing upon 
them to declare for America and to run up the 
American flag. 

This was much; but more remained to be done. 
The Indians had to be held in check. From the 
Mississippi to the Lakes the red men were dis- 
turbed; for, while they had been hostile to the 
Americans, they had been friendly to these French. 
Thus they paused at the very instant that the ar- 
row was on the string — hesitated when the toma- 
hawk was already in the uplifted hand. 

Had Clark not conciliated the French, had not 
Pierre Gibault succeeded in getting the American 
flag hoisted at Vincennes as well as at Kaskas- 
kia, there would probably have been no grand 
council of Indian chiefs to confer with one another 
and listen to Clark. 

But the attitude of the French confused the 
Indians and caused them to come from all direc- 
tions and from long distances to talk — to talk with 
Clark. 

It was a grand gathering; and the temper of 
the Indians was ugly. But Clark had a genius for 
managing borderers, white or red; and he so gained 
upon the untutored children of the forest, with 
mingled suavity and sternness, a seeming careless- 
ness and a vigilance which could not be caught nap- 

228 



GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 

ping, that they began to admire him greatly. When 
he painfully surprised a band which came secretly 
to slay him, by springing an ambuscade upon them; 
when he put these unskilful assassins in irons, 
and, reckless of mutterings among the children of 
the forest, went to a ball where " gentlemen and 
ladies " danced the night away, the savages were 
sorely perplexed. How to deal with such a man 
was a puzzle which was earnestly debated at many 
a council-fire that night. So that next morning, 
when he spoke to the council — two belts in his 
hands, one for peace and one for war — telling the 
chiefs that it w^as for them to choose, they eagerly 
snatched the emblem of peace. 

They consented that two of the baffled assassins 
should be put to death; and the young bucks came 
forward, squatted on the ground, covered their 
heads with their blankets, expecting the tomahawk. 

Whereupon Clark dealt his master-stroke; he 
forgave the guilty men. 

Then there was rejoicing, a great feast, and sol- 
emn vows of friendship. 

For the present the Illinois country was at 
peace. 

But Hamilton could not allow the huge prize to 
be taken from British hands so easily. Exerting 
every energy, he enlisted nearly two hundred 
whites and about three hundred Indians, dropped 
down upon Vincennes, and took it. This was in 

229 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

December, 1778. The winter being far advanced, 
Hamilton decided to wait till spring, at which time 
he would retake Kaskaskia and expel the Amer- 
icans from the disputed territory. Not needing his 
large force longer, he disbanded all but some eighty 
men. 

Clark received information of Hamilton's plan, 
and of the scattering of his forces. He determined 
to forestall the British. 

Gathering together one hundred and seventy 
men, he set out from Kaskaskia in February, 1779, 
for Vincennes. 

That winter march is one of the most wonderful 
achievements of human pluck and hardihood. 
When they struck the " drowned lands of the Wa- 
bash," theirs was a voyage by water without boats. 
They waded mile after mile, day after day — the 
water sometimes chin-deep. To keep gun and pow- 
der dry they had to hold their hands outstretched 
above their heads as they waded on. Sometimes it 
was almost impossible to find a spot of ground to 
rest for the night. The rations failed, for they 
could kill no game in these overflowed regions. 
Just before they reached Vincennes they had been 
two days without food. To get across the Wabash 
they had to make canoes. Then there was further 
wading through the cold water. Six miles from 
the town they camped for the night upon a hillock, 
hungry, drenched, almost frozen. Next day more 

230 




(iEORGE KOUERS CLARK. 



GEORGE ROGERS CLARK 

wading — miles of it — which well-nigh exhausted 
the courage and strength of the half-famished men. 
A luckj capture of an Indian canoe, in which there 
was a quarter of buffalo, some corn, tallow, and 
kettles, was made in the nick of time. Hot broth 
soon revived the spirits of the troop — one quarter 
of beef never having been made to go so far before. 

When Clark led his men to the attack, the 
chances all seemed to be in favor of Hamilton. He 
was inside a strong fort, he had cannon, and there 
was a sufficient garrison, although his foes outnum- 
bered him heavily. He might reasonably expect his 
war parties to return soon, and thus the Americans 
might be taken between two foes. There was no 
danger of famine, but his weakness lay in the faint- 
heartedness of his own men. The American marks- 
men picked off the British gunners through the 
port-holes; the guns could not be served; and the 
British commander lost hope. When only six or 
eight of the garrison had been disabled, he gave up 
the contest. Clark had but one man wounded and 
none killed. Seventy-nine prisoners were taken, 
and were paroled, with the exception of Hamilton 
and twenty-six others, who were sent to Virginia, 
where Governor Jefferson put Hamilton in irons. 

The vast Northwest had been thus won by a 
heroic band of volunteers, led by one of the most 
dauntless warriors that ever risked life for coun- 
try. That Great Britain was foiled, that the Amer- 

231 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

icans took possession, and held the conquered em- 
pire under the final treaty of peace made at Paris, 
was due almost wholly to this one magnificent pa- 
triot and soldier, George Rogers Clark. 

Randolph, of Roanoke, with pardonable exag- 
geration, called the great Virginian the " Hannibal 
of the West." 

The first fort which the Americans built and 
held on the Mississippi was put there by Clark at 
the instance of Jefferson, and was named " Fort 
Jefferson." ^ 

' The closing years of the life of Clark are involved in gloom and 
contradictions. It is certain tliat he became intemperate in his habits, 
that he lost influence on the border, and that he bitterly resented the 
failure of Virginia to vote him some substantial reward for his serv- 
ices. When her messenger came to his Western home bringing the 
honorary sword which the Legislature of his native State had awarded 
him, it is said that he broke the sword in a fit of anger, exclaiming pas- 
sionately against the irony of such a gift. 

Clark was living in a cabin, opposite Louisville, attended by one serv- 
ant, when, either in an epileptic fit or in a state of intoxication, he fell 
into the fire and was so badly burned that one of his legs had to be am- 
putated. 

His sister, Mrs. William Croghan (mother of the young hero of Fort 
Stephenson), took him to her home, near Louisville (1812), where he 
lived, tenderly cared for, till his death in 1818. Clark left a large landed 
estate, which was inherited by his nephews and nieces. 



232 



CHAPTER XXIII 



IN RETIREMENT 



The years 1781 and 1782 were the most sorrow- 
ful of Mr. Jefferson's life. Calamity after calamity 
fell upon him with bewildering frequency and 
staggering force. 

First came Arnold's invasion in January, 1781, 
and the censure which it aroused. Although Mr. 
Jefferson had done everything that was in his 
power, his enemies could not allow so choice an 
opportunity to pass, and they made him suffer. 

Then, in June of the same year, came Tarleton's 
inroad, the narrow escape of Mr. Jefferson from 
Monticello, and the administrative chaos of the 
next few days.^ 

Again the Governor was not to blame; but again 
he was severely censured. 

His family had refugeed to Poplar Forest, his 
estate in Bedford County; his Elk Hill plantation 
had been wrecked; more than a score of his slaves 
were dying or missing. On top of all this tribula- 
tion came the threat of impeachment! To a man of 

» In his Jeffersonian Calendar, Mr. William Eleroy Curtis states 
that Mr. Jefferson resigned the governorship. He did not resign.. 

233 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

his proud, sensitive nature this was probably the 
most unkindest cut of all. 

He accepted the challenge, had himself elected 
to the Legislature in order that he might be able to 
meet his accusers face to face, won an easy victory 
from critics who failed to appear, and was soothed 
by a vote of confidence which lauded his ability, in- 
tegrity, and rectitude. Nevertheless, Mr. Jefferson 
carried a sore heart with him to Poplar Forest; and 
neither his young disciple, Madison, nor his young 
neighbor, Monroe, could prevail upon him to quit 
his retirement. 

. Then, in April, 1781, he was stricken with the 
grief whose infinite pain none but parents realize 
— he lost an infant daughter. 

But the worst of all was yet to come. In Sep- 
tember, 1782, he lost his wife. 

This cherished companion had suffered in sym- 
pathy with her husband during these trying years; 
had felt the terror of sudden danger when the Brit- 
ish raided her home and forced her into flight with 
a babe in her arms. 

In May, 1782, she gave birth to her sixth child, 
and was never well again. 

How tenderly her husband nursed her, how de- 
votedly he stayed with her night and day during 
the months of her decline, what anguish he suffered 
when all hope was gone, how he fainted away as 
he was led from the room after the closing scene, 

234 



IN RETIREMENT 

how he was as one distracted for weeks and weeks, 
and how he sunk into a melancholy from which 
nothing seemed able to arouse him — no words could 
describe without a parade of a grief which is best 
treated by the silence which respects it as sacred. 

On her death-bed Mrs. Jefferson asked her hus- 
band not to give their children a stepmother, and 
he promised. 

Forty-four years later, when he himself had 
finished the long walk, there were found in the se- 
cret drawer of his private cabinet locks of hair and 
other souvenirs of his wife and of each of his chil- 
dren, those living and those dead. The envelopes 
which contained these were all marked, in his beau- 
tiful writing, with words of identity and endear- 
ment, and these envelopes had the appearance of 
having been often handled. 

The loved and loving wife had given birth to 
six children during a brief married life of ten years. 
Not robust at any time, the repeated ordeal of ma- 
ternity sapped her constitution. Nature's warnings 
were not understood, and, with the sixth child, 
there remained at length no reserve of strength. 

Amid the resurrection of so many old publica- 
tions, why is it that no trump awakes to new life 
Jefferson's Notes on Virginia? 

Strike from it the dry statistics, cull its choice 
passages, illustrate it with scenery and portraits, 

235 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

preface it with a biographical chapter by way of 
introduction, and the result would be a volume 
which would delight all lovers of literature. Some 
of its passages are beautiful as descriptions of 
natural scenery; some are valuable as studies of 
political and economical problems; the chapter on 
the customs, peculiarities, and race characteristics 
of the Indians is deeply interesting; and its insight 
into the negro, as a man and an issue, is profound. 
The comments on government, on religious intoler- 
ance, on militarism, finance, education, slavery, and 
kindred subjects are in all respects worthy of the 
author of the Declaration of Independence. 

The Notes on Virginia were written in re- 
sponse to twenty-three questions addressed to him 
by De Marbois, secretary of the French Legation 
at Philadelphia, who was instructed by his Govern- 
ment to secure information as to the resources, 
etc., of the colonies. It was during his retirement, 
in 1781, that Mr. Jefferson did most of the work on 
the Notes. In the winter of 1782 he added to them 
somewhat, and in the advertisement dated 1787 he 
regrets that some of the questions were answered 
imperfectly, but says that he could not apologize 
without going into " circumstances which would 
open old wounds, which have bled enough." 

From the dates given, it will be seen that the 
Notes were the leisure work of the period of his 
greatest sorrow. 

236 



CHAPTER XXIV 

IN CONGRESS 

In November, 1782, Congress unanimously and 
without a single adverse remark chose Mr. Jeffer- 
son as one of the commissioners to France. The 
summons came to him at a time when the first pas- 
sionate grief had spent itself. Monticello was al- 
most insupportable. Everything there reminded 
him of his loss. To remain there meant morbid 
brooding and apathy. Of all things, he most needed 
something to rouse him, to turn his thoughts out- 
ward. This call to duty was a blessing. By a 
natural revulsion of feeling, he responded promptly, 
accepting the appointment. He made all the neces- 
sary arrangements for leaving Monticello, and pro- 
ceeded to Philadelphia for instructions. While 
waiting for a favorable chance to embark news 
came, February, 1783, that the preliminaries of 
peace between Great Britain and the United States 
had already been signed. There was no longer any 
need of his services in Europe, and Mr. Jefferson 
returned home. 

But he had shown his willingness to reenter 
237 



« 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

public life, and the Legislature of Virginia elected 
him to Congress. 

A quorum to do business did not assemble at 
Annapolis till about the middle of December, and 
Mr. Jefferson left it on the 7th day of May, but dur- 
ing that period he did a great deal of important 
work. 

General Washington came in person to lay down 
his commission, and Mr. Jefferson arranged the 
ceremonial for that historic occasion. 

The answer which the President of Congress 
made to Washington's address is said to have been 
written by Jefferson. 

As chairman of the Grand Committee on the 
Treasury Department, he reported a plan for the 
reorganization of that branch of the service, and 
Congress adopted his suggestion. In conjunction 
with Gouverneur Morris, he originated our present 
money system. In lieu of the English pounds, shil- 
lings, and pence, the decimal count was proposed. 
Jefferson differed from Morris as to the details, be- 
lieving that the unit suggested by that gentleman 
was too minute and laborious for common use — it 
being the fourteen hundred and fortieth part of a 
dollar. Mr. Jefferson proposed the dollar as the 
unit of value, and favored three other coins, the ten- 
dollar gold piece, the silver dime, and the copper 
cent. After a full discussion of both plans. Con- 
gress preferred the system of Mr. Jefferson, and he 

238 



IN CONGRESS 

then became the father of the dollar, which was the 
centerpiece of the system. 

It was at this session that Virginia, in the lof- 
tiest spirit of patriotism, ceded to the General Gov- 
ernment the vast Northwestern territory. Her 
pioneers had first gained a footing there, her states- 
men had first realized the necessity for this west- 
ward expansion, and her soldiers had held it in de- 
fiance of Indians and English. 

But bickerings and jealousies had arisen; and 
to put an end to the dangers threatened by these, 
Virginia voluntarily surrendered her empire. A 
nobler peace-offering the world never saw. 

For the temporary government of this huge do- 
main, Mr. Jefferson drew up the famous '^ Ordinance 
of the Northwestern Territory," in which he incor- 
porated a clause prohibiting slavery after the year 
1800. 

The Southern States were not quite prepared to 
outlaw their property in the empire they were giv- 
ing away, and they defeated this clause. 

Mr. Jefferson's names and boundaries for the 
new States to be carved out of the territory were 
rejected, also his provision that the new States 
should " admit no person to be a citizen who holds 
any hereditary titles." With these changes his 
plans were adopted. 

It was in this celebrated Ordinance of the 
Northwestern Territory that the first suggestion 

239 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

of a plan for the admission of future States ap- 
peared. 

He had the honor of reporting back to Congress 
from committee the treaty of peace, in which Great 
Britain formally recognized the independence of 
which Mr. Jefferson had written the Declaration 
seven years before. 

The great defect of the Confederation was the 
lack of a distinct and separate executive. To sup- 
ply this need Jefferson proposed a committee of one 
from each State. This plural executive was tried, 
but the experiment was a failure. The comraitteo 
proved to be but a smaller Congress, torn by the 
same factions. 



240 



CHAPTER XXV 

MINISTER TO FRANCE 

On May 7, 1784, Congress resolved to send a 
third minister plenipotentiary to Europe to assist 
Benjamin Franklin and John Adams in negotiating 
commercial treaties. Mr. Jefferson received this 
appointment, and on the 11th May, 1784, he set 
out to join his colleagues, who were already in Eu- 
rope. Going by way of Philadelphia to get his 
daughter Martha, he visited the New England 
States, to familiarize himself with those matters of 
commerce with which his duties would require him 
to deal. On July 5th he sailed from Boston, reached 
England after a voyage which was uneventful, and, 
crossing the Channel, arrived in Paris on the Gth of 
August. 

There is no doubt that Mr. Jefferson found a 
great deal of enjoyment in his new office. It re- 
moved him from Monticello at a time when home 
had no charms. Old ties, and the dearest, had been 
broken; the wound was fresh, and amid those scenes 
it would be longest in healing. 

In Paris there was everything to divert his 
1^ 241 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

thoughts from the one subject which haunted him 
at Monticello. Besides, his environment was the 
most congenial he had ever known. 

A scholar, he could mingle every hour of the 
day wuth savants; a freethinker, he could exchange 
ideas with those who dared to question all dogmas; 
a lover of art, music, and social entertainment, he 
could expand himself rapturously in the most ele- 
gant city in the world. No need now to go to 
church on Sundays just to soothe the conscience of 
pious neighbors. He could visit some Parisian Ed- 
mund Randolph, play chess all day on the Sabbath, 
and never have a strait-laced Madam Randolph 
rebuke his wickedness by refusing to appear. 

In Virginia, it was necessary that he should be 
all things to all men — more particularly if they 
were Virginians. A boor could not be treated as a 
boor; he could not be frankly told that between 
himself and his host there was nothing in common, 
and that it would be pleasanter for both if the boor 
would jog along to the cross-roads tavern, where he 
would find a choice assortment of fellow boors. 

Life in Paris was to a sensitive, cultured, some- 
what dainty man like Jefferson what freedom would 
be to the caged__bird. He revel ed in his liberty. 
Never was he so much at ease, so much at home 
amid his surroundings. 

He settled himself in handsome quarters, and 

' iii_ ^ ■ — 

began to spend his money on good living in a man- 

242 



MINISTER TO FRANCE 

ner which threatened deficits, in spite of minute 
entries in account-books. Elegant furniture and 
appointments generally, a staff of servants, of 
course, equipages, of course, and epicurean winings 
and dinings. Flocking to him with joyful greet- 
ings came Lafayette and other Frenchmen who 
had known him in America. They introduced him 
at once into a social sphere which received him at 
his true worth. There was no period of probation, 
no anxious waiting for the verdict of the social 
petit jury, whose findings neither gods nor men can 
always with certainty predict. 

When a member of the great Noailles family 
could vouch for him; when Dillon and Biron and 
D'Estaing and Rochambeau knew exactly what 
he was; when De Ohastellux could tell of the Ital- 
ian villa-home, which surpassed anything he had 
seen in America — the Monticello where he had en- 
joyed hospitality, admired the owner's pleasure- 
grounds, stood by when the master fed his deer in 
the park, and gazed appreciatingly over lawns, 
gardens, orchards, fields — it was a foregone conclu- 
sion that French aristocracy should welcome Jeffer- 
son as a peer. 

" You replace Dr. Franklin, I believe," said the 
grandee, Vergennes, when the new minister was 
presented at the Foreign Office. 

"I succeed him; no one could replace him." 

Now, above all things, a Frenchman loves a neat 
243 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

turu of speech. The artist in words is to him as 
true to art as the chiseler of exquisite statues, and 
this repartee of Jefferson — innocent little thing! — 
not only tickled the ears of all Paris, but lives yet 
in all the biographies. 

Immediately upon his arrival in Paris, Mr. Jef- 
ferson had gone to Passy and j^aid his respects to 
Dr. Franklin, who was then in very bad health. Be- 
tween these two illustrious patriots there had al- 
ways existed the most cordial relations, and these 
were never interrupted. 

John Adams was summoned from Holland, and 
the three representatives of the infant republic pro- 
posed the form of a treaty of commerce which they 
proposed to offer to the nations. In spirit, this 
document was eminently just, humane, and liberal. 
The only monarch who would enter into these cor- 
dial relations with the infant republic w^as '' old 
Frederick of Prussia." 

It was in the spring of 1785 that Dr. Franklin 
returned home, and Congress made Mr. Jefferson 
minister to France. 

Mr. Adams had been appointed to a similar po- 
sition in England, and in March, 1786, Mr. Jeffer- 
son went over to London, at the request of Mr. 
Adams. 

They hoped to be able to negotiate a commer- 
cial treaty with Great Britain. Their efforts were 
fruitless. The King turned his back upon them, 

244 



MINISTER TO FRANCE 

and the ministers would not even discuss the treaty. 
As long as he lived Mr. Jefferson remembered the 
studied indignities which were put upon him in 
England, and if any insult can be said to have ever 
rankled in his breast it was this. 

Wounded, disgusted, indignant, he ceased to 
humiliate himself in the attempt to get the English 
minister interested in American commerce, and he 
set forth upon a tour of the historical scenes and 
" show-places." 

He and John Adams went together, and they 
seem to have enjoyed thoroughly' this feature of 
their trip. Great palaces, magnificent parks, noted 
battle-fields, Westminster Abbey, Oxford, Wood- 
stock, Shakespeare's cottage, they admired or rev- 
erenced as became appreciative strangers. On the 
battle-field of Worcester, where Cromwell had 
crowned his great career, Mr. Adams felt so much 
inspired by his feelings that he fired off an extem- 
poraneous speech to some rustics who had come to 
stare at the tourists. Mr. Adams, who kept a 
diary, thought his little address made a happy im- 
pression on the minds of these natives. What the 
rustics actually did think of Adams and his speech 
can not now be known. Few rustics keep diaries. 

As one w^ould naturally suppose, the matchless 
gardens of our mother country fascinated Mr. 
Jefferson. He went into no raptures over historic 
spots which appeal to ardent imaginations, peo- 

245 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

pling them with the heroic dead of ages gone, but 
the beauties of nature and of art, actually dis- 
played before his eyes, held him in their spell as 
strongly as they ever held painter or poet. The 
grandeur or the loveliness of a landscape, the ex- 
quisite proportions of a building, the varied at- 
tractions of a garden, had power to move him al- 
most to intoxication. So rapt would become his 
countenance, so oblivious would he be to the flight 
of time, as he contemplated the objects of his ad- 
miration, that less enthusiastic souls often won- 
dered if he were not demented. 



246 



CHArTER XXVI 

THE BARBARY PIRATES 

One of Mr. Jefferson's reasons for going to 
London was that the ambassador of Tripoli was 
there ready to negotiate with the United States in 
reference to certain Americans who liad been 
captured on the sea and carried into Mohammedan 
bondage. 

For Tripoli was a " Barbary pirate" state, 
which still kept up, on a limited scale, the hoary 
feud between Cross and Crescent. Christian na- 
tions had long since lost their crusading habit, and 
wars were not being waged any more because of 
difference of creed. Christians who spent so much 
of their time fighting fellow C'hristians were not 
disposed to harass infidel nations about articles of 
faith. 

But the Mohammedans had not wholly aban- 
doned their ancient ways; hence, in quarters where 
they were strongest, they continued to do as was 
done by both Cross and Crescent in the days of the 
crusades — they spoiled the Egyptians. 

The Egyptian who fulfilled the Scripture in the 
247 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

one case was the Mohammedan; in the other, he 
was the Christian. Lawful authority in the one 
case was derived from the Jewish Testament; in 
the other from the Arab Koran. In both cases the 
law and gospel is strongly against the Egyptian. 
Most historians contentedly describe these Moham- 
medans as " Barbary pirates." In the sense that 
the crusaders were pirates, or that Drake and Haw- 
kins were pirates, they icere pirates. They were not 
so in any other sense. 

From the days of Godfrey, Bohemund, Tancred, 
and Kichard, down to those of Don John of Aus- 
tria, Christian princes had hurled themselves upon 
the Mussulman, doing him injury to the full extent 
of their power. The Mohammedan retaliated when- 
ever he could. At the close of the eighteenth cen- 
tury the lineal descendant of the crusading cus- 
toms, so far as the followers of Mohammed were 
concerned, made itself manifest in the capture, by 
the various " Barbary powers," of all such Chris- 
tian vessels as were unable to prevent it. 

To a religious world which had forgotten all 
about the hoary pledges to redeem the sepulcher 
of Christ, and which had no distinct recollection of 
the wholesale manner in which the Christian West 
had formerly despoiled the Mohammedan East, 
this survival of barbaric practises was most irk 
some and odious. It was what would be classed in 
historical literature as an anachronism. Therefore, 

248 



THE BARBARY PIRATES 

it could not be too severely condemned. " Barbary 
pirates " was a name quite good enough for heathen 
who continued to do in the eighteenth century 
what had been correct enough in the sixteenth, or 
even in the seventeenth, but which was now clearly 
out of date. 

But the Mussulman was a great fighter, and, to 
keep him from continuing the crusading feud, the 
kings of Europe bought peace from the infidel at 
a stated price. 

To this inglorious end had come the oaths 
sworn and armies marshaled to break the power of 
Mohammed, and redeem the grave of Christ. 

Now, the infant republic of the United States, 
not versed in the ways of diplomacy, had paid no 
tribute to the " Barbary pirates." The conse- 
quences ripened early. In the spring of 1785 the 
American brig Betsy was pounced upon and taken 
to Morocco. Spain was then our friend, and Spain 
urgently requested the Sultan of Morocco to re- 
lease the prisoners without ransom. Even pirates 
have their ideas of suavity and etiquette; the Sul- 
tan had no wish to affront a tribute-paying Chris- 
tian like Spain. Besides, the United States was, 
perhaps, ignorant of the rules and had not intended 
to violate any of the customs of the Mediterranean. 
Therefore the Sultan handsomely complimented 
the infant republic with the liberty of the Betsy's 
crew. No; he would not exact money this time. 

249 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Accept these captures with the compliments of the 
Sultan. But hereafter !! 

This hereafter soon came. Three more crews, 
not knowing the law, fell into the hands of the in- 
fidels, and the three captains wailed, beseeching 
Mr. Jefferson to get them out. 

This matter caused Mr. Jefferson a great deal of 
labor and annoyance. While in England he had in- 
terviews and correspondence with the Tripolitan 
ambassador, but the difference between the ran- 
som demanded and the sum Mr. Jefferson was au- 
thorized to offer was so great that nothing came 
of the tedious, protracted negotiations. 

Mr. Jefferson was profoundly dissatisfied with 
the relations which existed between Christian Eu- 
rope and these " Barbary pirates." To behold 
Great Britain, France, Holland, Spain, Naples, the 
two Sicilies, Venice, and Portugal bargaining with 
Mohammedan states for peace at so much per an- 
num was humiliating. 

He believed that war — an issue of arms upon 
principle like that — would not only be justifiable 
but cheaper in the long run. Therefore, he pro- 
posed a plan by which the nuisance could be abated. 
Let the Christians concerned agree among them- 
selves to furnish pro rata a fleet whose special mis- 
sion it should be to either compel the Barbary pow- 
ers to sign treaties of peace without exacting sub- 
sidies or to fight them off the seas. 

250 



THE BARBARY PIRATES 

Mr. Jefferson's plan was the oonreption of a 
statesman, and met with favor; but, unfortunately, 
Congress could not back him with the frigate 
which, under the terms of his program, it was 
the duty of the United States to furnish. So the 
plan did not materialize. 

Turning from historians to diplomats, and con- 
trasting the language used in the one ease and in 
the other, we become interested, if not edified. 

The Emperor of Morocco was the chief pirate 
of all " Barbary pirates "; and yet, when President 
Washington, in 1791, had occasion to send a letter 
to this Emperor, it was addressed " Great and mag- 
nanimous friend." It seems that the old Emperor 
had recently died, and that President Washington 
was writing to the son of the deceased — the father 
and son both being pirates, mind you, 

Washington says to the young Emperor: "The 
death of the late Emperor, your father, and our 
friend of glorious memory, etc. Receive, great and 
good friend, my sincere sympathy with you in that 
loss"! 

Oh, what rare pirates are these! Who wouldn't 
turn pirate to win such a friend as Washington, 
and have him pose as mourner? Let us read on: 
" Permit me to express the satisfaction with which 
I learn the accession of so worthy a successor to 
the imperial throne of Morocco, and offer you the 
homage of my sincere congratulations "!!! 

251 



\AVl\ AM) riMIS Ol .II.I'I'l":i{S()N 



Aum^Is ;iii»l iiiiiiisi (M'M of j'fiict" (IrlriMl un! Tlir 
f^it'iil ({r(M<;r N\ iisliiiii;(«>n holding lliJH Kiinl ol liiii 
i;iiU!i«;(' ((» a I'oblxM! I'muil lur lo ol1'»>i- (In- hniinnii ! 
(Nuii^i'iii iihil ions IIimI ;iit sinctii ' 

l\«\ul on: " iMnv ( lir »liivs o( vom- [Mnjfslv'H lil'o 
be im:iii\ Mini ;• Ituions "! 

l'iTsi<l(Mi( W nsliin;' i »»ii I lirn |n-otcr»lM lo liopr, 
caniosllv .-iiul soiiiow li:i i liiiiiihlv, llnil I lir \ixin;', 
|»in«l<' will lr«>iil llu' I'liilod Shilos ns IiImihIIv mm 
( ho ol<l <lo!i<l pinilo li:i(l doiio 

And llio missi\o winds n|> willi iin nsl oni.Mliin;' 
plMVt'i" Ih.ll Iho "(J(»d \\ Intin wo bol li jidoio " (uo 
|Mi";il<'s) "will Idoss yonr iinpoiiiil Mnjosly willi 
lon^ lil'o, Im';iI(Ii, ;ind snccoss"! 

lUossod piralos! 

y\( I ho (loMo (d I his nnur/Jii<^ loMor and anion 
ishin^ piavoi- aro si^^in'd I ho nainos of (lo<»rf^o 
W'ashin^lon, Trosidonl, ami 'I'honias .lorroiH<»n, Sor 
rolaiy of SI a lo! 

\'<'filv, diploniaoy has ways Ihal Jiio |Mrnliiir" 
ami lan^^na^c whit h is <|nooi-! 

Ami w hon I'lcsidoid \V'aHhin;^'lon I laiiHinil l<d (o 

I ho Sonalo Ihal lro;il\ wilh Tiipcdi, whi< h I ho Son 

alo iMliliod, I hr inl rodnci ory sonlonco ran in I hoiio 

vvoi'ds: 

. . " Ah I ho ( Joyoninniil (d' I ho Urdhd Slalos is nol 

// in a n ,v HO 11 HO fonndod on I In- ( 'liriHl ia n rolif4 ij)n," «lc. 

This lo Hoolho lh(- iMohainrnodaii pirah' and lo 
koop hin prioo vvilhin I ho honndH of iiiodcratirui! 



'1 Iff- l'.AU]',.\iiy I'lItATKS 

In vifw of Hodt fa/'t.» a» t.faff»e it might fj»e Wfrll 
/or bistoriraJ arjthorH to f]i»<'ard th^- titl^; of " Bar- 
hiiry pirate's," and to pnt npon VVashiDgton's gr^at 
fri^-Tirl, of "glorioan m^'ifiory," a narn^- whif h w(,\i\(] 
reiU-ct greater credit — opon Wa.Hhington. 

A» well a» another roukJ Washington resort to 
the wiles of diplomacy whf-ri oeeasion fJemandf'd. 
Henre, he could coar-t the Mrissnlinan with mean- 
ingless blandishm^'nts, and bid^- the time when 
the sword rouWl ( ijt this partieulariy diffictiJt 
knot. 

During his second administration, Washington 
believed that his country was strong enongh fo d^-fy 
the Barbary powers, and he called npon Congress 
for h?jlf a doz^n mf>dcst little battle-ships, to be 
used in the Mediterranean, After the usual 
lengthened debate, Congress did finally vote the 
vessels. 

Nothing fnHht-r was done until Jefferson him- 
self was President. We shall then see how^ this 
most tenaeiouH of men cfinif-d out his original plan 
of bringing the Mussulman to r(;alize that the cru- 
sades wt-rc over. 

This rc( '>nii{i(-ri(\'fi\'i(>i> whif fi Wpishiri;.^tori made 
in hi-', rrifssage wfis based upon Mie r(-port whifh 
Mr Jfff'frson, as Heeretary of Htate, h?id made to 
('ongress. 

Tbfjt body having applied to him in the matter 
(>f the navy, he advi.sed the building of a sufficient 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

number of vessels to protect our commerce in the 
Mediterranean. On account of suggestions like 
those he made in Paris and during his secretary- 
ship, John Adams called Jefferson the father of the 
American navy. 



254 



CHAPTER XXVII 

HIS SERVICES ABROAD 

What did Mr. Jefferson do for his country while 
minister to France? 

To answer fully would certainly be tedious and 
would probably be useless. Whale-oil, salted tish, 
tobacco, rice, and salted pork are important items 
in commerce, having much to do with the balance 
of trade and the prosperity of individuals and of na- 
tions; but when the reader is assured that Mr. Jef- 
ferson struggled long, hard, and with partial suc- 
cess to prevail upon France to be lenient with us 
upon those subjects, he has perhaps learned as 
much as he cares to know. 

The grip of the protectionist, the monopolist, 
was almost irresistible on the France of that day, 
as it is on America now, and Mr. Jefferson's task 
was well-nigh hopeless. Yet, by great perseverance 
and the bringing to bear of the pressure of Lafay- 
ette and other personal friends, he did manage to 
loosen the iron bands a little. Whale-oil and salt 
fish from New England began to have better treat- 
ment, so did rice from the South. For tobacco he 
was not able to do so much, that article of com- 
merce being in the control of the Farmers-General, 

255 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

a corporation which held France by the throat. 
The sum and substance of it all was that Mr. Jeffer- 
son succeeded in getting the United States treated 
as the most-favored nation. France not only 
yielded to him better trade relations than she had 
ever conceded to Dr. Franklin, but she agreed to 
put her consular arrangements with us on a far 
more satisfactory basis than Dr. Franklin had 
agreed to accept. 

In short, Mr. Jefferson accomplished no mar- 
vels, but he did everything that was possible. 

Besides his public duties, he was kept busy at- 
tending to various other matters which one of our 
national representatives at a foreign court would 
now disdain. Mr. Choate, w^ho takes care of our 
dignity at the Court of St. James, would probably 
refuse to buy lamps for an American friend, as Mr. 
Jefferson cheerfully did for Richard Henry Lee; 
and Mr. Charlemagne Tower, who emphasizes and 
illustrates our national majesty at Berlin, would 
hardly make the rounds of the jewelers' shops to se- 
lect a pair of spectacles for an acquaintance, as 
Mr. Jefferson did for Bellini. 

Things were different then; and Thomas Jeffer- 
son was often seen under conditions not more im- 
pressive than Chief-Justice John Marshall's when 
he selected cabbages in the Richmond market, and 
walked home bearing a plebeian burden of chickens 
and eggs, ham and sausages. 

256 



HIS SERVICES ABROAD 

Fancy a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of 
the United States going along the streets, from 
the market, holding a bunch of squalling chickens 
in his hand iioiv, will you? 

Wasting no thought on his dignity, Thomas 
Jefferson was happy in attending to the wants of 
his old friends. He would ransack the bookstores 
to get rare volumes for George Wythe and James 
Monroe and James Madison; for some other corre- 
spondent he would buy a new tongue for the harp- 
sichord; to another he would send a case of wine; 
and he went to a great deal of trouble to procure 
for Mr. Madison the best watch that could be made. 

The State of Virginia wished to have a marble 
bust of Washington, and Mr. Jefferson selected the 
sculptor (Houdon), made the contract, and con- 
ducted the correspondence with all the parties con- 
cerned. A new State-house was being built in 
Richmond; it delighted the minister to furnish 
plans and specifications, copied from a Roman re- 
main which fascinated this amateur architect. 

In the course of a friendly discussion with 
Buffon, the French naturalist, as to the respective 
sizes of animals in Europe and America, Mr. Jeffer- 
son resolved to bring forward, as proof of his the- 
ory, the skeleton of a moose. He wrote to General 
John Sullivan, of Maine, to get him the skin and 
skeleton of a moose and to ship it to France. 

General Sullivan sallied forth on a winter cam- 
is 257 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

paign, accompanied by a troop of hunters, marched 
through the snow, found a herd, killed a moose, 
cut a road twenty miles through the wilderness, 
and had the carcass dragged home by hand. Hav- 
ing got the animal to his home, General Sullivan 
had to take off the skin, clean the bones, pack the 
parts w^anted, etc. 

In due time Mr. Jefferson got the argument he 
needed for the convincing of Buffon. He also got a 
bill of expenses which amounted to two hundred 
and twenty dollars. The Count de Buffon hand- 
somely confessed himself conquered. 

All Americans who happened to need help of 
any kind learned the way to Mr. Jefferson's house 
in Paris. 

Lion-hearted Paul Jones, seeking justice from 
Denmark, which had given up to England certain 
prizes vron from the Mistress of the Seas by the 
dauntless Jones, appealed to Jefferson, not in vain. 

Ledyard, the Connecticut traveler, found in our 
minister a friend who sympathized with him. From 
Mr. Jefferson he obtained money and the introduc- 
tion to people of influence. 

He zealously aided all Americans who were in 
distress — those who were prisoners in the hands of 
the " Barbary pirates," those who were in trouble 
because of violations of French maritime regula- 
tions, and those who were simply short of money. 

He kept American colleges informed on the sub- 
258 



HIS SERVICES ABROAD 

jects of scientific discovery and speculation, curious 
books, and learned theories. Agricultural societies 
he supplied with new seeds, plants, nuts, and val- 
uable suggestions. The heavy upland rice which 
became such a blessing to Georgia and South Caro- 
lina was grown from seed which he brought aw^ay 
from Italy in his overcoat pocket. The glorious 
protective principle made it a crime to export the 
rough rice from its native home, and Thomas Jeffer- 
son, in the interests of humanity, became a smug- 
gler. The world his country, to do good his relig- 
ion, he, like Thomas Paine, carried his benevolence 
wherever he went; and, just as we find him making 
efforts to confer benefits upon Americans, we see 
him doing the same thing for Europe. The pecan- 
nut is one of our great natural sources of wealth 
— a fact that we, even at this day, are only begin- 
ning to realize. Mr. Jefferson appreciated it more 
than a hundred years ago, and he introduced it into 
France, James Madison sending him the nuts. He 
w^as interested in all sorts of useful inventions, and 
his correspondents at home were kept informed of 
whatever he learned. From Herschel's discovery 
of double stars to Watt's success with the steam- 
engine, from the new French theory about the rain- 
bow to the screw-propeller which a Parisian had 
just invented, he was on the alert, quick to inves- 
tigate and to report results to his friends across the 
water. 

259 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

James Bruce, the celebrated traveler, explored 
Africa in search of the sources of the Nile, escap- 
ing dangers of every description — fever, drowning, 
starvation, attack of wild man and wild beast, 
poisonous serpent and ravenous crocodile — to come 
home at last and meet death in a tumble down the 
steps of his own house. 

Something like the irony of this fate befell Mr. 
Jefferson. While casually strolling with a friend 
one day near Paris, this athlete, who could master 
the spirited horse and the frail boat and escape un- 
hurt from a headlong gallop down his mountain, or 
from a daring venture across the swollen current 
of a mountain stream, fell to the ground and broke 
his wrist. 

Awkward but stoical, he grasped the wounded 
right hand with his left, made no sign, and contin- 
ued the stroll and the conversation. That evening 
he made the usual entries in those account-books, 
using the left hand. But the injury was serious. 
It gave him great pain, and he never recovered the 
full use of the hand. Thus writing became very 
laborious to him, and much of it from that time was 
done with his left hand. 

Mr. Jefferson states that he continued his vio- 
lin practise up to the breaking out of the Revolu- 
tion. His biographer Henry S. Randall thinks he 
did not entirely quit fiddling until this fracture of 
his wrist. 

260 



HIS SERVICES ABROAD 

In spite of Mr. Jefferson's positive statement 
that he '' never took up " his violin after the Revo- 
lution broke out, Mr. Eandall carries him on to the 
accident in France, but positively puts an end to 
it then. In defiance of both Jefferson and Randall, 
Mr. William Eleroj Curtis keeps Jefferson fiddling 
with his stiff wrist all through his term of Secre- 
tary of State, and holds him to it even while he is 
President. 

A most remarkable composer of true biographies 
is Mr. Curtis, to be sure! 

Perhaps it was while Jefferson was playing with 
a stiff wrist that he made the reputation which 
Mr. Curtis said he had — of being the sorriest fiddler 
in Virginia. 



261 



CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE FKENCH REVOLUTION 

The learned Parisian doctors advised the suf- 
ferer to drink the waters of Aix. Mr. Jefferson was 
himself something of a surgeon — could set a broken 
limb and tie up an artery — and we can not but think 
he wished to travel for the sake of traveling, else 
he would not have gone to such a distance to drink 
water for a bruised wrist. 

Whatever his motive, he set forth upon his 
travels, drank water at Aix for a while, derived 
no benefit therefrom, and resumed his light whines 
as he continued his journey. The diary in which he 
recorded his experience indicates that he was not 
one of those who go about merely to look at houses 
and trees, rivers and mountains. He studied the 
people. He wanted to know how they lived, what 
kind of food they ate, and beds they slept on; what 
sort of work was done, and what wages were paid. 
He entered their homes, lolled upon their cots, 
peeped into their pots, pried with tongue and spied 
with eye, in the most practical, prosaic, uncomfort- 
able manner. 

Delighted wuth his success, he wrote to Lafay- 
262 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

ette that if he really wished to know the condition 
of his own people, he, the marquis, must do what 
he, the American minister, was then doing — he 
must go into the huts of the poor, and see for him- 
self just how they lived. 

That the French peasantry were wretchedly 
poor, degraded, squalid, and ignorant to a shameful 
degree is true — a truth which is disagreeable to 
the system of king rule and priest rule which had 
so long held them in absolute subjection. Mr. 
Jefferson's opinion was that nineteen million of the 
twenty million citizens of France were in a worse 
condition than the most abject victims of poverty 
in America.^ 

His sympathy with the downtrodden nineteen 
millions was profound; his indignation against the 
one million oppressives was hot and bitter. 

No words were strong enough to condemn the 
heartless rulers who had enslaved and brutalized 
the masses in order that the privileged few might 
revel in riches beyond the limits of healthy, ra- 
tional desire. 

To Washington, Monroe, and others he wrote in 
most contemptuous terms of the besotted kings, 
the reckless, selfish nobles, the cruel inequalities 
and injustice of the Old World system; but his tone 
is always that of a statesman deepened in convic- 
tions which he had long held. 

' Yet he notes that he had never seen a drunken man in France. 

2G3 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

His repeated er.y is: " If yon want to fully ap- 
preciate the blessings of our democracy, come over 
here and see what the other thing is! Come and 
gaze upon these swinish Kings, these Queens who 
madly gamble; these nobles who shirk every duty, 
plunder the taxpayers, and live riotously on the 
spoils; these priests who are as greedy as the peers 
and as corrupt! Come and gaze upon the toilers 
of the land, those who feed and clothe and serve 
their masters, living in huts not fit for horse or 
cow, keeping body and soul together on food not 
good enough for a decent dog! Look at their rags, 
their starved faces and forms! Their minds are 
blank; they have had no schools. Ignorant, super- 
stitious, well-nigh bestial, they have lost all con- 
ception of government, and their religion is a 
meaningless form. To them, the state means a 
master they must pay, or be damned here on earth; 
the Church is a master they must pay, or be damned 
in hell hereafter. Behold in France the ripened 
harvest of the system! A dull, coarse-mannered 
King, whose rapture is to slaughter tame birds and 
deer; a Queen who is frivolous, headstrong, 
haughty, and devoted to gambling; a nobility 
which is rotten to the very core; a Church which 
crucifies its Saviour every day in the week; a peas- 
antry which has never known a kind word or deed 
from those who are its self-constituted shepherds — 
a peasantry which has never known its masters 

264 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

save in the taxes which plundered and the dis- 
criminations which, heavy as a yol^e, cut like a 
lash!" 

Washington, pleasantly engaged in rehabilita- 
ting Mount Vernon, could not realize what Jefferson 
witnessed in France. For this reason, as well as 
others, he could never sympathize with the French 
Revolution. 

In all the earlier stages of that mighty move- 
ment Mr. Jefferson was as openly a friend of the 
reformers as his position allowed. 

His mansion was common ground upon which 
the reform leaders could meet to adjust their differ- 
ences, and they sometimes embarrassed him by the 
freedom with which they used it. 

The French ministers to whom Jefferson made 
explanation not only took no offense, but, in effect, 
expressed the hope that these reformers might con- 
tinue to have the benefit of Jefferson's wise, con- 
servative advice. 

That he was conservative is shown by the plan 
of compromise between the King and the liberal 
nobles which he suggested. Let the monarch come 
forward with a charter in which he should grant 
liberty of the person, of the conscience, and of the 
press; trial by jury; a representative legislature, to 
meet annually and control taxation; and a ministry 
responsible to the people. 

Unfortunately, the King was controlled by a 
265 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

party which refused concession, while the reform- 
ers were dominated by a faction which demanded 
more than Jefferson outlined. No compromise 
could be made, and the Revolution rolled on. 

Having seen for himself the miserable condition 
of the French peasantry, the interest with which 
Mr. Jefferson regarded the opening scenes of the 
Revolution may be imagined. 

He saw the notables called together, the high 
heads of Church and State. He saw them cling to 
their privileges, refusing to yield anything. They 
were prosperous, they considered the system a 
glorious system. It had been good enough for their 
fathers; it was good enough for them. Surrender 
their privileges! Give up feudal dues! Tax them- 
selves! Grant relief to the peasants! Never in the 
world! 

The high heads go as they came, very high, in- 
deed. 

But something must be done. The King needs 
money. And the people, so it is said, are on the 
point of starvation. The States-General is called, 
and Mr. Jefferson attends the opening scene. He 
witnesses the preliminary struggle over the ques- 
tion of one general assembly, where each deputy 
shall have one vote, or three separate assemblies, 
where any one chamber can veto the action of the 
others. A vital issue, for the assembly of the no- 
bles would veto the acts of the commons, even if 

266 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

the assembly of the higher clergy did not. Mr. Jef- 
ferson is there when the royal sitting is held, and 
when the King in person commands the deputies to 
separate into three houses; there when deputies re- 
main after the King has gone; there when Mirabeau 
thunders his famous refusal to get out. 

He is deep in the couns els of the r eform ers all 
alo ng here . Kin g-beardin g is a pastim e he is fond 
of; he has bearded a King before. Tradition says 
that it was he who advised the commons to declare 
themselves the assembly, leaving it to the other two 
classes to say whether they would join or not.^^ 

He is presen t at the ver y first collisio n between 
the people and the troops; he is there when the Bas- 
til e is stormed ; there when the gor_^^_head of poor 
old De Launay — from the end of a pike — stares 
upon the wil d multitu des of Paris. Mr. Jefferson 
is in Paris when the King is brought from Ver- 
sailles to have the badg e of_R evolution pinned in 
his coat and its wat_ch.2:iu:ds practised on his lips. 
He is there on that memorable night in August 
when feudalism is offered up, a burnt offering, to 
appease the wrath of gods and men. Sages take 
their places to writ e a Consti tution for the new 
France, and they invit e Mr. J eff^rgon to be_2resent 
and to help — an invitation which flatters, but which 
must be d eclined . All the time that hejs heart and 

' The British ambassador to France, the Duke of Dorset, wrote that 
Jefferson gave the advice here alluded to. 

267 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

soul with the refo rmers he urges them not to at- 
tempt too much noiv. Leave something to time. 
By demanding too much, you may lose all. Go 
slow. 

They a ll respec t him, confid e in him , look up to 
him. Around him is th e halo, of the succes s of the 
Americ an Revolutio n. He is an authority^ — a sol- 
dier in the sacred cause of ci vil libeji ty, whose lau- 
rels are still fresh. 

Barnave, who was not afraid to cross swords 
even with Mirabeau, is to be seen at Jefferson's 
table; also De Lameth; also Duport; also Mounier. 
We know that Jefferson was familiar with such 
men as Montmorin and Necker, such women as 
Madame Houditot, De Tesse, and Necker's brilliant 
daughter; but did he know the angular, sharp-faced 
member from Arcis — Ro bespierre ? Did he ever 
chance to discuss science with Dr. Jean Paul 
Marat? Did he ever hear thundering at the Palais- 
Royal the bur ly Dant on? 

We know what he thought of the oratory of 
Mirabeau — life is bountiful when it permits the 
same man to hear both Patrick Henry and Mira- 
beau. We know that he was acquainted with the 
Girondin Condorcet, and that he gave to Brissot, 
another Girondin, a letter of introduction to Mad- 
ison; but did he ever meet the lofty-minded patriot 
Louvet, a third Girondin, whose book of Chevalier 
Faublas (so detested by Thomas Carlyle) deals 

268 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 

largely with the adventures of the Count Pulaski, 
who gave his life for us at Savannah? 

Among the young nobles whom he met in his 
social rounds, did he happen to know the gallant 
Viscou nt Beauharna is, and the gay wife of the 
same — sweet-faced, soft-voiced, artfully artless 
Jose phine ? 

The Ab be Raynal was a savant of some reputti- 
tion. Did he ever see the American minister, and if 
so, did he introduce his prot ege^ Lieutena nt Napo- 
leon Bonaparte? 

Questions like these naturally occur to the 
mind, but they can not be answered. Owing to the 
bungling work of a crud e letter-pres s, all of Mr. 
Jefferso q^'s .letter s, at the most interesting period 
of his stay in France, are unreadable. 



269 



CHAPTER XXIX 



RETURN TO MONTICELLO 



Mr. Jefferson, upon his arrival in Paris, had 
placed his daughter Martha in a convent school. 
The other two he left in Virginia with their aunt, 
Mrs. Eppes. The youngest, Lucy, died soon after 
her father reached France, being about two years 
old at the time. In 1787 Mary Jefferson joined her 
father and her sister in Paris, and was also placed 
in the convent school. Martha is described as be- 
ing tall and elegant, with a calm, sweet face, 
stamped with thought and earnestness. She was 
modest; she w^as both gentle and genial; and she 
possessed fine natural talents, which she was faith- 
ful in her efforts to improve. Her temper was 
sunny; extremes were unknown to her; the eleva- 
tion of her father never elated her unduly; and the 
misfortunes which came upon him, and upon her, 
could not break her spirit. " The noblest woman in 
Virginia!" So said John Randolph, of Roanoke, 
who did not love her for her father's sake. 

Mary Jefferson is said to have been beautiful in 
form and face, like her mother. " A finer child of 

270 



RETURN TO MONTICELLO 

her age I never saw," wrote Mrs. John Adams, who 
kept the girl a while in London till Mr. Jefferson 
could send for her. " She was the favorite of every 
one in the house." She was one of those impulsive, 
warm, and clinging children whose throne is a 
father's knee, and who must run to him with every 
beautiful flower it has found, every beautiful pic- 
ture it sees in the books; one who must rush to his 
arms for consolation, when its little griefs come, 
and weep its way to comfort on his breast. 

Mr. Jefferson had been enjoying the freedom 
and advantages of his position so much that he 
came near making a grave mistake with his oldest 
daughter. He forgot how long she had been at the 
convent, until one morning in 1789 he received a 
note from her in which she asked his permission to 
become a nun. 

Allowing the note to go unanswered for a day 
or two, he drove to the convent, had the necessary 
explanations with the abbess, then, telling his 
daughters that he had come to take them away 
from school, he drove off with them to his home. 

Engaging special masters, the education of the 
young ladies was continued, special attention be- 
ing given to their music and dancing. Each of them 
spoke French almost as fluently as they did their 
mother tongue. 

When Mr. Eandall stated that, after coming 
from the convent, Martha Jefferson was introduced 

271 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

into society, he probably meant no more tlian he 
said, viz., that she began to meet her father's 
friends socially, receiving and paying visits in Mr. 
Jefferson's quiet way. Mr. Randall could not have 
meant that Martha had not been in society pre- 
vious to that time, for the letters he prints show 
that so early as 1787 she accompanied her father 
on his social rounds. 

Resolved into its real elements, the episode be- 
comes simple enough. The American minister puts 
his daughter in charge of the abbess of a convent, 
to be educated. Sanctimoniously environed, the 
impressionable girl becomes sanctimonious, inclin- 
ing to nunnery. The mother superior herself, no 
doubt, required that the minor child consult her 
father before committing herself. At any rate, 
the suggestion comes to Mr. Jefferson in a frank, 
open way. He acts the gentlemen with the abbess, 
for he goes to her before seeing his daughter. He 
acts the kind-hearted parent with the child, for he 
utters no word of reproof. He asserts his rights 
as parent, for he takes his girls home. And he 
acts the man of the world, for he gives them other 
teachers, and throws them with people who are 
not so sanctimonious. 

That is all there is of it — until Mr. William 
Eleroy Curtis gets hold of the incident, and then oc- 
currences befall! 

He makes Martha's letter to her father a " tear- 
272 



RETURN TO MONTICELLO 

ful entreaty." No tear-splotches were in the mis- 
sive till Mr. Curtis took possession. Furthermore, 
he makes Jefferson a boor, who sends for his chil- 
dren, without a previous interview with, or a mes- 
sage to, the abbess. 

Then, having unceremoniously affronted the ab- 
bess by sending for the girls, he leaves off educa- 
ting Martha, and immediately plunges her " into the 
brilliant scenes of the court of Louis XVI, where 
she soon forgot " — and so forth! 

The scenes of the court of poor Louis XVI were 
not so very brilliant in the year 1789, when the Jef- 
ferson girls were taken from school; and there is 
no evidence that either of them was ever introduced 
into the " court scenes " at all. If a Virginia girl of 
the peculiarly noble type of Martha Jefferson had 
been thrust immediately into the stifling atmos- 
phere of that court, with its Polignacs, its D' Artois, 
its gambling Queen and tipsy King — this brothel, 
as the Queen's own brother called it — the prob- 
ability is that the convent would have gained im- 
mensely by contrast and the diplomatic parent 
would have realized that he had overreached him- 
self. 



In the spring of 1788, Mr. Jefferson went to Am- 
sterdam to concert with Mr. Adams some plan to 
satisfy the hungry creditors of the United States. 
19 273 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Traveling in his own carriage, using post-horses, 
he passed through Valenciennes, Brussels, Ant- 
werp, Rotterdam, and The Hague. Mr. Adams 
joined him here, and they proceeded in company to 
Amsterdam, where they got rid of the old debts by 
the comparatively familiar device of making a new 
one. Mr. Adams having executed bonds to the 
amount of a million florins, subject to the approval 
of Congress, the ministers separated, and Mr. Jef- 
ferson extended his journey up the Rhine, visiting 
Cologne, Frankfort, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Carls- 
ruhe, and Strasburg. He returned to Paris by way 
of the Marne. 



At the time Mr. Jefferson accepted the diplo- 
matic mission he had supposed that his absence 
from home would not be long. Two years was the 
length of his term of office. But when Congress 
nominated him to the position made vacant by Dr. 
Franklin, his stay had prolonged itself into five 
years. 

It was important that he should return home 
for at least a few months. His private business re- 
quired it, his family affairs required it. 

Not till August, 1789, did he receive notice of 
the desired leave of absence, and it was November, 
1789, when he and his daughters reached Norfolk. 
They journeyed toward home leisurely, for it was 

274 



RETURN TO MONTICELLO 

not till Christmas was almost upon them that they 
reached Monticello. 

In Richmond, where the Legislature was in ses- 
sion, his loyal friend Edmund Randolph met him 
at the head of a deputation from the House, to wel- 
come him home, and present congratulatory reso- 
tions.^ Making suitable reply, Mr. Jefferson con- 
tinued his journey till he reached the home of Mr. 
Eppes, his brother-in-law, where he spent some 
days. 

As his carriage at length drew near Monticello, 
two days before Christmas, everybody on the place 
came streaming down the road to meet him. 

The negroes were in a state of excitement, 
which grew as they waited; and when at length 
they caught sight of his carriage they broke into 
shouts of welcome. They whooped, they laughed, 
they cried — they couldn't keep hands off. They 
must take hold of something, somewhere! Traces 
were undone, horses taken out, stout slaves caught 
hold, and, in spite of all the master could do, the 
negroes rushed uphill with the carriage, some pull- 
ing in front, some pushing behind, some keeping at 
the wheels till the level ground was reached at the 
top and old master was at home again! 

The door was plucked open, and Mr. Jefferson 
was caught up in strong arms and " toted " into the 

• Conway says it was Randolph, Par ton says it was Patrick Henry 
who was the mover of this ovation. 

275 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

house in the midst of a delirium of enthusiastic joy, 
which passed from the kissing of his hands to the 
kissing of his feet. 

Bright shone the lights at Monticello that night, 
and late was the hour, no doubt, when the sounds 
of gladness died away and sleep enwrapped the 
place — " big house,-' quarters, and all. And after 
everybody else had gone to bed, and every other 
candle was out, we have not the slightest doubt 
that the home-coming statesman softly opened the 
secret drawer in the private cabinet, touched rev- 
erently the souvenirs of the dead wife, who had al- 
ways greeted his returns before, and, in the loneli- 
ness of the house where all but he slumbered, the 
old " wounds, which have bled enough," opened 
again and bled once more. 



276 



CHAPTER XXX 

DEMOCRACY IN VIRGINIA 

Nobody cares much to know where the aver- 
age river rises; it is a matter of no particular conse- 
quence, and makes no appeal to the imagination. 
But when one looks upon the fountains from which 
the Danube flows, when one gazes down into the 
feeble beginnings of the Nile, the Amazon, or the 
Mississippi, the feeling must be altogether differ- 
ent. So it is with the various governments of the 
world. The origin of the average establishment 
aw^akes no especial curiosity, challenges no especial 
investigation; but when we come to deal with such 
a republic as that which our fathers built, so novel 
and so great, the remote sources whence it drew 
the blood and breath of life become intensely inter- 
esting. 

Whose was the original idea, whose the plan? 
Who first unfurled its standards and fought its 
early battles? Whence came the form of our re- 
public, and whence the spirit? 

The Puritan says : " It was I who led the way, 
277 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

planted the principle, developed the idea, gave it 
strength and shape, caused its triumph. Plymouth 
Rock is the corner-stone of American democracy." 

The Cavalier says: " It was I who ventured first, 
suffered most, accomplished most. My footing 
here was permanent and secure before the Puritan 
was seen. I had planted trial by jury, representa- 
tive government, and local sovereignty before New 
England ever heard of a Pilgrim Father. Sword in 
hand, I had wrested the charter of my liberties 
from Great Britain a hundred years before the 
Stamp Act was heard of; and I was practising the 
leading principles of democracy while the Puritan 
was hunting for witches, offering large rewards for 
Indian scalps, selling King Philip's son into sla- 
very, torturing children to get evidence against 
parents, persecuting to the death anybody who was 
not a Puritan, denying the right of citizenship to 
all who were not Puritans, and straining every 
nerve to establish the most repulsive theocracy the 
world ever knew." 

Such are the contending claims of Puritan and 
Cavalier. They clash at all points. But the Puri- 
tan was quickest with his pen. He wrote the story 
to suit himself. The Pilgrim Father's sketch was 
worded by his son, and its modesty is not its stri- 
king feature. 

When the three ships of December 19, 1606, 
dropped down the Thames on their way to the sea, 

278 



DEMOCRACY IN VIRGINIA 

on their way to the New World, they flew at their 
mastheads the flags of a new civilization, a new 
empire. 

The Discovery, the Goodspeed, the Susan Con- 
stant, with the charter of King James the First, 
sail away from the old home and steer for the 
Western World. They plant the Christian religion 
at Jamestown, establish trial by jury, and John 
Smith is the first man in the New World to be tried 
by his peers, and to have his heart leap at the 
blessed words " Not guilty." 

No King, no Parliament, aids these heroic ad- 
venturers in their struggle for existence in Vir- 
ginia. When swamps are cleared away, they do the 
work; when savages assail, they do the fighting. 
King James has graciously given them a piece of 
paper, that is all. Theirs the risk, the danger, the 
toil, the misery, the pain of hunger and disease. 
Theirs the glory of the victory. By sheer force of 
character, hardihood, and courage, " the soldier 
ruler," John Smith, beats down every obstacle, 
asserts his dominion over the white men of his 
little colony and the red men of the wilderness, 
until the settlement of Virginia, its conquest to 
Anglo-Saxon civilization, is no longer a question 
of doubt. 

" He that will not work shall not eat! " 

Admirable John Smith! Red-headed, red-whis- 
kered, short but stout apostle of American democ- 

279 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

racy! Who ever founded a republic upon a nobler 
principle? It is the " golden rule " of democracy. 

The Cavaliers murmured, but they obeyed. Soon 
it was remarked that the half of the colonists who 
were classed as " gentlemen " excelled the other 
half in manual labor. 

In the year 1612 began a further progress in re- 
publican institutions. Royal permission was given 
to the London Company, which controlled Virginia, 
to sit once a week in London and to hold four Gen- 
eral Courts in the year for the consideration of the 
colonial affairs. 

Here was the creation of a democratic society in 
the very citadel of monarchy! 

The Company had authority to make laws for 
Virginia, provided such laws were not contrary to 
those of Great Britain. What room for de- 
bate! 

We are not surprised when we read that the 
meetings were thronged and their discussions tu- 
multuous. No wonder that the ambassador of Spain 
should tell King James that the Virginia courts 
were but a seminary to a seditious Parliament! 

In Spain, the ambassador could witness, almost 
any month in the year, the burning at the stake of 
some poor wretch who had ventured to think for 
himself on questions which kings and priests had 
declared were settled. 

In London, owing to the King's own lack of fore- 
280 



DEMOCRACY IN VIRGINIA 

sight, leading citizens were hotly debating the fun- 
damental bases of government. " Shall the will of 
the people control in the making of a law, or shall 
it be the pleasure of the King? " 

But for that new charter, the mere discussion 
of the question would smell rankly of treason. 

In the debate, victory was won by the popular 
party; Virginia was to have the essentials of free 
government. 

In the year 1619 (no Pilgrim Fathers yet in 
sight!) every free man in Virginia who chose to 
vote did so, and thus chose a representative to the 
General Assembly at Jamestown, which began to 
make laws for the people. 

Here was the cradle of American democracy! 

In this first of representative assemblies held 
by white men on this continent demand was made 
for home rule, and two years later that demand 
was expressly conceded. No orders of the London 
Company were to be binding on the colony " unless 
they be ratified by the General Assemblies " of the 
colony. 

This paper bears date 24th July, 1621. What 
charter of free government in America antedates 
it? 

When Cromwell overturned royalty in England, 
the Cavaliers of Virginia, loyal to Church and King, 
remained steadfast. With arms in their hands, 
they treated for peace with Cromwell's commission- 

281 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

ers. A formal compact was agreed to, put in wri- 
ting, and signed. The eighth article of that treaty 
reads: 

" Virginia shall be free from all taxes, customs, 
and impositions tvhatsoever P^ "None shall be im- 
posed without the consent of the Grand Assembly " 
(of Virginia), " and neither forts nor castles shall 
be erected nor garrisons maintained without their 
consent." 

Here was local independence! Freedom from 
taxation, freedom of trade, freedom from English 
troops and forts, home rule through their own rep- 
resentatives! 

Is it any marvel that, after Cromwell's time, the 
minions of a restored and shameless King should 
attempt to encroach upon the liberties which 
Cromwell had sanctioned, and that " Great Re- 
bellion " should be the measure of Virginia's resist- 
ance? 

Young Nathaniel Bacon, land-owning Cavalier, 
was just as true a patriot when he led the embattled 
Virginians in 1676 as young George Washington, 
land-owning Cavalier, was when he led them in 
1776. Home rule, civil liberty, just laws, and good 
government were just as much at the bottom of the 
quarrel in the one case as in the other. 



282 



CHAPTER XXXI 

BEGINNINGS OF THE REPUBLIC 

We have already seen how this independent 
spirit flamed up again in 1764 and 1765, when Na- 
thaniel Bacons all over Virginia left their farms 
to maintain their rights. We have heard the orator 
talk and seen the soldier arm. We have learned 
that in all the colonies the feeling was practically 
the same, and that nothing was needed but leader- 
ship and organization to weld separate committees 
into a confederation. 

We have seen the younger Virginians holding 
their private meetings, apart from the more con- 
servative members of the Legislature; we have 
seen them agree upon the Committee of Corre- 
spondence, whose mission it will be to knit the 
threads of continental union. 

Whose brain originated the plan? Some claim 
it for Richard Henry Lee, some for Samuel Adams, 
some for Jefferson. It is Dabney Carr who came 
forward to proclaim it, and to advocate it so con- 
vincingly that no opposition is heard. 

We have seen the first Congress meet and sepa- 
rate, having done little more than establish the 

283 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

vital fact that the Continental Congress was some- 
thing more than a suggestion. It was a reality. 

Other Congresses follow, and we see the begin- 
nings of nationality. We stand at the head waters. 
We gaze down, down into the little parent streams 
with profound interest. With what artful manage- 
ment the colonies are kept in line, taught to keep 
step! With what diplomacy the front ranks are 
made to go slow till lagging patriots can be brought 
up! How careful the extremists are not to frighten 
the conservatives! Notice that the fiction of " your 
Majesty's loyal subjects " is maintained to the very 
last moment, and that the magic word Independ- 
ence does not slip the muzzle until all the colonists 
are in line of battle, with George Washington in 
command. 

Then note the earnest reaching out for supports, 
for outside help. See the anxiety to protect the 
Western flank from hostile Indians. Nobody's aid 
is scorned in those days. Every savage has his 
value. No man is tested as to his religion if he be 
ready to serve the cause. Baptists can preach now. 
Quakers are human beings now. 

The Indians come to a conference at Easton, 
Pa. Congress selects a commission to treat with 
them, and Tom Paine is secretary. They carry 
a thousand dollars' worth of presents along, to 
be put where they will do the most good. The con- 
ference is held in the German Reformed church. 

284 



BEGINNINGS OF THE REPUBLIC 

There is an organ in this church, which is one ad- 
vantage. We will soothe the savage ear with 
music. If the rural organ, primitively played, does 
not reduce the red man to a pliable state of mind, 
something else must be tried. Rum! So our con- 
gressional committee brings along a supply of New 
England rum. Few are the Indians who can resist 
this New England beverage. 

The organ sounds, the rum barrel is broached — 
we will now shake hands, and all take a drink, while 
the organist plays something appropriate. The of- 
ficial report states that " after shaking hands, 
drinking rum, while the organ played, we proceeded 
to business." Wise in their generation were our 
forefathers! 

W^e have already seen how Congress first de- 
nounced Great Britain for surrendering Canada to 
the Catholics, and then sent influential Catholics to 
enlist Canada against Great Britain. In vain 
Charles Carroll, of Carrollton, and the Rev. John 
Carroll explain and negotiate. The language Con- 
gress had used against the Catholic Church was 
too strong and too recent; the timely concessions 
England had made to the Church were too valuable; 
Canadian Catholics decided to let well enough 
alone. No help could be had from the North. But 
in another part of the sky there was a rift in the 
cloud. France, though bound to England by sol- 
emn treaty, was smarting from the w^ounds Great 

285 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Britain had given her, and hungered for revenge — 
yet was afraid to strike. 

As accomplices in a criminal enterprise did 
France and the United States first begin to come 
together. 

We have already had a glimpse of the " elderly 
lame man " having the " appearance of an old 
wounded French officer " who mysteriously hung 
around Philadelphia in November, 1775, dropping 
vague hints and dim notifications that he had come 
in behalf of the King of France. 

Confronted by a committee, and urged to say 
something one could do business on, the elderly 
lame man drew his finger across his throat elo- 
quently, and said: 

" Gentlemen, I shall take care of my head." 

This was De Bonvouloir, a very respectable 
scion of the French nobility. He had come at the 
instance of his Government, yet so violative of 
treaty was it for him to be there, that he knew full 
well that his King would repudiate him if things 
went wrong, and that his poor old head might pay 
the forfeit which would, in that event, appease the 
just wrath of Great Britain. 

Writing home about his conferences with mem- 
bers of the Continental Congress, Bonvouloir 
states: 

" Each comes to the place indicated in the dark, 
by different roads." 

286 




THOMAS SUMTER. 



BEGINNINGS OF THE REPUBLIC 

Verily, one's brain evolves reflections when one 
stands at the fountainhead of national greatness. 
That was, in truth, the commencement of the 
French alliance upon which our success was 
founded. 

Silas Deane goes to France, and the important 
portions of his letters to his home Government are 
written in invisible ink. 

Explaining to John Jay how to read Deane's let- 
ters, Beaumarchais writes: 

" You will use a certain liquid (that Mr. Deane 
told me you had) upon the margin of the printed 
sheets so as to make legible what Mr. Deane has 
wrote. Should it not have its proper effect, which 
I am afraid of, as the letters were put into a tin 
box in a barrel of rum, which has eat through, and 
I am afraid has damaged them, the inclosed letter 
is of the same contents." 

Think of the correspondence between France 
and America going by way of a tin box hid in a 
barrel of rum! 

Vergennes, the French Minister of Foreign Af- 
fairs, not daring to openly show his hand, gives 
from the French treasury a million francs (|200,- 
000) to the struggling colonies, but does it on the 
sly, covering up the transaction so that his go-be- 
tween, Beaumarchais, seems to be simply a mer- 
chant selling goods to the Americans. So well, 
indeed, is the matter concealed that, after the 

287 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

death of Vergenues, Beaumarchais attempts to 
compel the United States to pay him the million 
which had been donated. It was not till 1794 that 
Gouverneur Morris, our then minister to France, 
was able to find the receipt which Beaumarchais 
gave to the French treasury for the million francs.^ 

While French aid was coming to us in their 
roundabout way, Tom Paine published a statement 
in Philadelphia which let the secret out, and the 
French minister, Gerard, made such an outcry 
about it that Congress had to denounce it as false. 
Paine's indiscretion was so palpable that efforts 
were made to dismiss him from his post as Foreign 
Secretary. To relieve Congress as well as himself, 
he resigned. 2 

Dr. Franklin goes abroad to make friends for 
the colonies. At first he is a mere private citizen, 
living modestly at Passy, on the outskirts of Paris. 
He cultivates everybody, and waits. Agreeable to 
the women as well as the men, to philosophers and 
politicians, to Masons and to Catholics, to atheists 
and to Calvinists, to financiers and to literary men — 
all are fish for his net. Franklin soon becomes the 
fashion, the rage; and the French alliance begins 
to walk on its own feet. 

» Three million francs were advanced, in all, previous to the treaty of 
1778. 

' Mr. Pellew, in his John Jay, states that Paine then became a 
paid writer for France. Gerard offered him such employment, but Mr. 
M. D. Conway declares that Paine never took a cent of Gerard's money. 

288 



BEGINNINGS OF THE REPUBLIC 

A careless man with bis papers and his accounts 
is the good Dr. Franklin. When he returns to 
America and faces a congressional committee he is 
found to be half a million dollars short. 

" How about this deficit, doctor? " In answer 
to so natural a question the good doctor says: "I 
was taught when a boy to read the Scriptures and 
attend to them, and it is there said: muzzle not the 
ox that treadeth out his master's grain." 

Of Franklin's honesty there could be no reason- 
able doubt; the money had probably been used in 
Europe as secret-service funds are generally used. 



20 289 



(^IIAPTlOli* XXXM 

AK'l"l(;i>l':S OK CONKKKI'MtATlON 

Out of 1 he ('oiiiinittooa of ('(UTOsporulonco jjfrcw 
llic ('()iij;iTss, sii^;^<'sI(m1 hy MmhhjhIiiihcMs ;iii<1 
Im'«»ii}j;IiI into hciii^ b.v Hk' |>r(»m|)(, wnnii li<':ii-lr<l 
aclioii of Soul h ( *;u<>liii;i. < )iil <»r ( lir < 'oii^rcss ^rcvv 
Ihc Arliclcs of ('<)iif('<l('i';i I ion. The print i|»;»l dc- 
f<MlM of (lirso ;iirnlrs Wi-ic: (1) 'I'licy ^Jivo ( lie (l«'n- 
cral (JovcriinuMif no ri^lil of Ijixjilion; (2) no power 
to r<'{4ul;ile coinmene; (.'?) no power over I lie ri(i/en 
(lirccMy; (4) no power fo enf«»ree il.s will; (r>) no real 
ex('('uliv(\ 

('on};ress niif^lil need money :in<l Iroops, hill 11: 
conld nol direrlly raise eillier. KN'(|ui.sHioiis lia<l lo 
bo made on I lie Stales; and when the SI ales re- 
fused lo lioiior llie re(|iiisilions, 1 lie (Jeneral (Jov- 
crnmenl had no power lo enfoi'ce ils <lemands. 
Every Slale eonld lay ils <liilies upon commerct', 
and lluis lliere (-((iild he Ihirleeii dilTereiil, anla^o- 
nislie systems in opeialion within lh<' Confeder- 
ation. Uiidoiihtedly this j^overnment was loo 
weak. The ceiilral ))ower was not a jjower. The 
tliirteen soverei}j,ii, iiide|)en<lenl Slates had too 
jealously retaincMJ their own sovereijLijnty. 

Against these defects Washington had strug- 
290 



Ainu LKS OF COXFKI)KJ{ATIO>: 

j^Icd UH ]>('Hi \\<' could <liirin;^ 1 Ix- w.n-, hut willi l}j<' 
(](^<'l>('Hi. <()ii\\<i\()i\ llml no f-ff^'clivc ^ovt-mmMit 
wan [>oKisih)*' until they wia-c cnvitd. 

T\\<' central power Kank into corjlcrnpt after Iho 
peace. .\I< in[>erK of (.'on^'resK often KtayerJ at home, 
JeavJnj4 t^J''if KtateK unrepreKented. 1'her<* went 
practically no n;jlur;il revenuen with which to pay 
off tlie \\;i/- (|<-(>ts. The amiv dwindled lo jckk thaji 
one hundred men. I>et ween citizeriK of J'ennnyi- 
vania an<J r(,nne( t icut there wan ifiuch li^htin^, 
much projx-rt y (Je,stroyed, and many lives JoKt. 
Wyominj^ Valh'y, wJiich ha«i fjeen Kwej,i with fire 
and sword in 177S hy British, lfi<li;ins, Jind 'rori<'K, 
was now hiid waste a^^ain by the troops of Pennsyj- 
vauia — the victims, this time, heifjj^ Hettlers from 
Connecticut . 'i'he dis[iute was over fJie title i(, the 
land. 

New .Jers<'y and ^'onnecj icui w<'re emhroile<J in 
a c(,ninier<i;j| war with \e\v V'ork. It liacJ ie;jc)i('(J 
an acute staj;e, where it seemed (crtain that pow- 
der would Boon hum jind hullets tiy. 

Hhays's liehtdlion hroke out irj .MasKaehuKettB, 
an<J whiJe it aujcjuntecj i(j nothing and was soon put 
down wittjout bloodshed, it (Ji(J not strenj^then the 
government whi<h surviv<'d it, as most rebe|lir>ns 
do. 

People who wanted a stronj^er j^overnrnent 
made immense capital out of Khays's poor little dis- 
turbance, and it rinj^s with distressing^ loudness in 

201 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Federalist histories till this day — the writers draw- 
ing lessons from it directly opposite to those drawn 
from the Whisky Rebellion in Pennsylvania after 
the Federalists had got what they wanted. 

Delegates to adjust commercial differences be- 
tween Virginia and Maryland, growing out of nav- 
igation of the Potomac, meet in Alexandria, and 
Washington is there. The delegates go to Mount 
Vernon, and conferences with Washington take 
place. Another commercial meeting is called on a 
larger scale, and now James Madison, Alexander 
Hamilton, John Jay, and Edmund Randolph become 
active. The Annapolis Convention takes good care 
not to regulate the commerce which needed regula- 
tion, and the scope of the movement is skilfully 
broadened until it becomes a constitutional con- 
vention, to meet at Philadelphia to amend the Ar- 
ticles of Confederation. 

The manner in which this apparently local and 
unimportant commercial movement was nursed 
and fed and disguised, until it became a national 
convention, determined upon the creation of an en- 
tirely new government, is a wonderful instance of 
political finesse and management. A few able, ex- 
pert, long-headed gentlemen recognize the neces- 
sity for a strong government, in which the demo- 
cratic features shall be subordinate. They know 
that the least exposure of their scheme means death 
to it. They keep the real purpose hidden from 

292 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 

sight. Just as the fiction of loyalty to the King 
had been kept up until it was perfectly safe to ring 
the Liberty Bell, so now the subterfuge of regula- 
ting commerce was used as a screen for the consti- 
tutional convention. 



Tazewell Hall, sitting on its green terrace at 
Williamsburg, was a fair specimen of the old- 
fashioned home in Virginia — the house of schol- 
arly, hospitable John Randolph, royal attorney- 
general of the colony during the time of Lord 
Dunmore. 

This was one of the centers of fashionable life. 
Crown officers were at ease here; and whatever lord 
or lady from the mother country happened to visit 
Williamsburg was sure to be entertained at Taze- 
well Hall. 

Here also were seen in familiar social inter- 
course with the Randolphs and with each other 
such men as Washington, Page, Lee, Nelson, 
Wythe, Pendleton Harrison, Tucker, and Jeffer- 
son. Many a time the large barn-like but most 
comfortable old mansion was filled with music as 
the King's attorney bent lovingly over that cele- 
brated Cremona violin and played a duet with the 
freckle-faced lord of Monticello. Many a time 
Lord Dunmore, guiltless as yet of burning Virginia 
towns and attempts at negro insurrections, chatted 

293 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSOX 

contentedly here with eouneilors, lawjers, farmers, 
and Murray relatives from Scotland. Through 
these large rooms sounded footsteps which yet 
echo in the corridors of time; within them were 
heard voices which history shall ever hear. The 
only son of the house, a beautiful, dark-eyed, manly 
boy, listened so well to what Patrick Henry said, 
to what the Lees and Jefferson and Washington 
said, that when his father followed the fortunes of 
Dunmore, and exiled himself to London, he, Ed- 
mund Randolph, cast his lot with the patriots, and 
sought service on Washington's staff. 

Only twentj'-two at this time, he seems to have 
been almost as mature as Alexander Hamilton. To 
him fell the duty of entertaining Washington's 
guests, doing the honors of the house. To him was 
assigned the care of Washington's private affairs, 
his complicated interests in Virginia. 

When the illustrious Peyton Randolph died 
(1775) his mantle seems to have fallen upon his 
brilliant nephew; and although Congress pressed 
office upon him, and Washington reluctantly gave 
him a furlough from the staff, we find the young 
lawyer accepting a poorly paid judicial position in 
Virginia, and serving in the State Convention of 
1776. Having served there with Lee, Mason, Henry, 
Mann, Page, Madison, and Bland, on terms of 
equality, he became the first attorney-general of 
reconstructed Virginia, filling the place with con- 

294 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION 

spinious ability. In 1780 he was in Congress, and 
in 1780 he was Governor of his State. 

In the preceding January he had been appointed 
at the head of tlie eommissiori of eight which the 
Virginia Assembly selected to meet the commis- 
sioners of other States at Annapolis. 

The ostensible business of these commissions 
was to regulate commerce. 

There is no evidence that Edmund Randolph 
turned his thoughts to imports and custom-house 
regulations, but there is proof that he immediately 
began to concentrate his mind uj)on a new consti- 
tution. 

Ilis correspondence with Madison and Washing- 
ton throws a bright light upon the inner workings 
of the Federalist movement. 

Anxious as General Washington had been for a 
stronger government, he was not at all sanguine. 
The Annapolis meeting might possibly lead to 
something, and must therefore be encouraged and 
attended. When the Philadelphia convention was 
ordered he was still in doubt as to its results, and 
not at all confident nor inclined to commit himself 
by taking part in the proceedings. He had publicly 
declared that he was done with public life; his pri- 
vate business demanded his attention; besides, he 
had the rheumatism. 

Edmund Randolph, realizing the immense im- 
portance of Washington's personal attendance at 

295 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

the Philadelphia meeting, was unceasing in his ef- 
forts to remove the general's objections — to over- 
come his inertia. 

Even Madison was not sure that Washington 
should identify himself with a proceeding whose re- 
sults were so uncertain. He rather deprecated the 
urgent zeal with which Randolph insisted. 

" Would it not be well," writes Madison, " for 
him " (Washington) " to postpone his actual attend- 
ance until some judgment can be formed of the re- 
sult of the meeting? It ought not to be wished by 
any of his friends that he should participate in an 
abortive proceeding." 

In this correspondence, in which it is interesting 
to note that Randolph refers to the States as " our 
associated republics," it clearly appears that Wash- 
ington's attendance upon the Philadelphia conven- 
tion was due, more than to any other man, to the 
influence and the insistence of the Governor of Vir- 
ginia, Edmund Randolph. 



296 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

THE CONSTITUTION 

Two of the youngest members of the Constitu- 
tional Convention of 1787 went there with ready- 
made constitutions in their poclvets. Alexander 
Hamilton carried one, Edmund Randolph the other. 

Hamilton's plan was so frankly aristocratic and 
monarchical, in body and soul, that it was incon- 
tinently cast aside. 

Randolph's plan was in form republican, in 
spirit far from democratic. 

The sittings of the convention began May 25, 
1787. There were fifty-five delegates. Some of 
these were not present during the first few weeks 
of the session. Ten other delegates who had been 
elected did not attend at all. 

Benjamin Franklin, aged eighty-one, was the 
oldest member of the convention; the youngest was 
Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, aged twenty-six. 
Alexander Hamilton was thirty; James Madison 
thirty-six. 

General Washington was president of the con- 
vention, and the work which quiet, studious, 

297 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

learned, and industrious James Madison performed 
fairly entitled him to the proud name he afterward 
bore, '' the Father of the Constitution." 

Three great compromises had to be made before 
a new government could be established. 

(1) The Connecticut compromise gave equality 
to all the States in the Senate, while preponderance 
was given to the larger States in the House. 

(2) The slavery question, carrying a dispute be- 
tween free States and slave States, was settled by 
allowing three-fifths of the slaves to be counted in 
the census, upon which was to be based representa- 
tion in Congress. 

(3) Between the agricultural and commercial 
States the fight on the tariff and the slave trade 
was intensely bitter; but it was finally arranged 
that Congress should control commerce, and the 
importation of slaves should cease in 1808. 

By the 17th of September the great conven- 
tion had completed its task — " the noblest work 
ever struck off at a given time by the mind and pur- 
pose of man," according to Mr. Gladstone. 

When the secret convention threw open its 
doors, and published the result of its labors, the 
world saw a Constitution which was, in form, Ran- 
dolph's, yet, in spirit, so wholly foreign to its au- 
thor's intention and so akin to Hamilton's, that the 
New York statesman (who had quit and gone home) 
immediately ran to its support, while Randolph 

298 



THE CONSTITUTION 

stood aloof, doubtful what to do. Like George Ma- 
son, he refused to sign the new Constitution, and 
was classed with its opponents. 

By the time the Virginia convention met, how- 
ever, Kandolph had decided to throw his whole 
weight into the scale for ratification, and George 
Mason was denouncing him as a Benedict Arnold. 

Luther Martin, of Maryland, had quit the con- 
vention in disgust, because so much power was be- 
ing given the Central Government; and he vehe- 
mently opposed the adoption of the Constitution in 
the Maryland convention. 

Patrick Henry had at first been in favor of the 
movement toward a stronger government; but the 
astounding treaty which John Jay, Secretary of 
Foreign Affairs, had negotiated with Spain — a 
treaty in which the rights of the Southern people 
were traded off in exchange for commercial ad- 
vantages to the North — created such a bitter feel- 
ing in the South that jealousy of the power of 
Congress became a passion. Southern men had 
fought their way to the Mississippi, suffering all the 
hardships, paying all the costs, asking no help from 
Congress or from other States. An empire of al- 
most boundless wealth lay in the future of the do- 
main which had thus been brought into the Union. 
Fort Jefferson flew our flag in the far West, the vis- 
ible sign of the conquest Boone and Kenyon and 
Clarke had made. Even the British had respected 

299 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

our rights to this western land, and had conceded it 
to us by the treaty of Paris. 

And now by a cold spurt of the pen John Jay, 
aided b}' a secret committee in Congress and doing 
the work in secret, virtually proposed to haul down 
the flag and destroy for twenty-five years the value 
of the conquest. The Mississippi was to be closed 
to American commerce; Spain was to have absolute, 
exclusive control of the stream! It was this aston- 
ishing bargain between the Northern men in Con- 
gress and the Spanish minister which aroused the 
first outburst of sectional feeling after the war. It 
was this which changed Patrick Henry and so many 
others, and caused them to fear that in the new^ con- 
stitutional government the Southern States would 
be nothing more than tributary provinces to the 
North. 

To Washington's overwhelming influence the 
success of the Philadelphia convention had been 
due. But the A^erdict of Virginia herself was yet to 
be rendered. Whether the new Constitution would 
be accepted by her was extremely doubtful. Wash- 
ington put forth all his strength in favor of ratifica- 
tion, but did not himself attend his State conven- 
tion. 

The brunt of battle was borne by James Mad- 
ison and Edmund Randolph. It might be altogether 
more accurate to say that it was borne by Edmund 
Randolph and James Madison. 

300 



THE CONSTITUTION 

While the Governor had refused to sign at Phila* 
delphia, and while he had been extremely reluctant 
to give the new Constitution his support, he had de- 
cided to do so, and to whichever side Randolph went 
he was a tower of strength. 

It may be that there was some defect in Ed- 
mund Randolph's character which kept him from 
carrying the weight of such men as George Mason 
and James Madison; but any one who will take the 
pains to study impartially the records of that epoch 
will be pretty sure to reach the conclusion that, in 
mental equipment, Edmund Randolph equaled any 
American of his time. There was a clear penetra- 
tiveness about his mind, a faculty for easily mas- 
tering the most complicated questions, a fertility 
of resource in debate, which made up a combination 
possessed by few of his contemporaries. When he 
was in his prime, he was intellectually a giant. The 
disgrace which fell upon him during Washington's 
administration withered his laurels; otherwise it is 
hard to account for the fact that he receives so lit- 
tle credit for the victory which the Federalists won 
over Patrick Henry in the Virginia convention of 
1788. 

The calmly contemptuous manner in which bi- 
ographers pass by Randolph to laud Madison is first 
cousin to the ignorance, or the injustice, which 
chiseled the name of John Eager Howard so ob- 
scurely on the Cowpens battle-field monument. 

301 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Madison was great, but he was a man of the closet, 
a fighter with his pen. To claim him as an orator, 
an effective debater in a rough-and-tumble fight, a 
match for Patrick Henry before an excited assem- 
bly, is partizanship. 

The foeman who was worthy of Henry's steel in 
that convention was Edmund Randolph — himself a 
master of fence, tried on a hundred fields. 

A profound lawyer, a deep student of political 
questions, fresh from constitutional deliberation 
and discussion at Philadelphia, familiar from court- 
house combats with every peculiarity of Henry's 
methods, a debater whose varied gifts of mind and 
whose splendid physical advantages captivated the 
ear and the eye of every listener, a politician so 
popular and so skilful that he had but recently 
given Richard Henry Lee a Waterloo in the race 
for governor, Randolph was precisely the man we 
would expect to cross swords with Henry in this 
great debate. Between these two, both lawyers, 
both orators, both men accustomed to think on 
their feet, both equipped with every weapon of men- 
tal warfare, we would instinctively feel that the 
real fight would take place. 

James Madison — five and a half feet high, a thin 
voice, awkward manner, no flow of language, no 
single element of the orator in his make-up, not 
much accustomed to public speaking, trained rather 
to work with his pen and to confer with a group 

302 



THE CONSTITUTION 

around a table, holding his hat in his hand while 
speaking as though uncertain what to do with it, 
using written notes, his voice so low that the re- 
porter often missed what he said, so slight in 
stature that it was not easy for all the delegates to 
see him, ill and feeble and absent for two days from 
the hall — such is the portrait drawn by biographers 
who declare that here was the man who bore off 
the honors in the great debate in the Virginia con- 
vention! 

Thomas Jefferson was abroad during this entire 
period, and when he learned the results of the 
Philadelphia convention he was alarmed and pain- 
fully disappointed. He had thought that the Ar- 
ticles of Confederation needed amendment, but he 
had not favored any such revolution as this. There 
was no bill of rights! No safeguards against mo- 
nopoly; nothing to limit terms of office. The Presi- 
dent seemed to be a poor edition of a Polish king, 
and he was not certain that the good articles in the 
new Constitution preponderated over the bad. 

After the Constitution had been made, and after 
such friends as Washington, Madison, and Randolph 
w^ere committed to it, he would not oppose it. He 
even became its advocate, but with a condition. He 
advised that nine States adopt it, and the other four 
hold off until amendments could be made curing the 
defects which he pointed out. 

303 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Had Virginia and New York acted in concert, 
this would have been done, and they came very near 
to acting in concert. Clinton, the Governor of New 
York, failed to get a letter in time — a letter mailed 
in Richmond in December, 1787, and which did not 
reach New York till March 7, 1788. Then, again, 
New York's reply did not reach Richmond till two 
days before the final vote, and lay unopened on the 
table in the legislative chamber while the great con- 
test raged in another hall! 

Had there been no delay, or trickery, with these 
letters, the two great States would have understood 
each other, would have acted in concert, and would 
have compelled amendments which even Edmund 
Randolph thought ought to be made. 

While the American colonies had always recog- 
nized their dependence on the Crown, yet they were 
separate and distinct as to each other, and in local 
matters each had exercised acts of sovereignty. 

Massachusetts, Virginia, and Georgia did not 
await the consent of Great Britain to wage war 
upon Indians. They fought when they pleased and 
made peace when they got ready. England never 
sought to curb the colonies in the exercise of this 
high sovereign power. The colonies made formal 
treaties, just as independent nations of Europe do 
at this time. Allegiance to the Crown was con- 
ceded, and in foreign relations England's control 
was admitted; but as to affairs here on this con- 

304 



THE CONSTITUTION 

tinent, self-governmeut was claimed and exercised. 
The Revolution took place when it became clear to 
the colonies that Great Britain meant to put an end 
to this local self-government. 

After the Declaration of Independence, and its 
ratification by each State, each one of the thirteen 
colonies most certainly considered itself a sover- 
eign State. The only bond of union was a common 
cause and a common danger. Their delegations to 
the Congress did not bind them to a confederation 
any more than their Committees of Correspondence 
had done. Their relations one to another were 
nothing in the world but a hearty cooperation 
against a common enemy. 

Virginia, for instance, not only created a repub- 
lic with a written constitution (the first on record), 
but created a currency, ratified the treaty with 
France, and sent an agent to Europe to contract a 
loan. 

By States, the Declaration was adopted in Con- 
gress; by States, it was ratified by the people. And, 
since the allegiance to Great Britain had been 
thrown off, there was absolutely no bond of union 
between the thirteen States. They had simply 
agreed to confer with each other on matters con- 
cerning the common cause, and this conference was 
held through delegates appointed for the purpose, 
and the meeting of these delegates went by the 
name of Congress — that was all. 
21 305 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

At any time one or more of the States could 
omit to send delegates, and so drop out of the con- 
ference. It was in the conference of May, 1775, that 
the first " Articles of Confederation and Perpetual 
Union " were agreed on in Philadelphia. 

In terms this was a confederacy, called " the 
United Colonies of North America." 

When independence had been declared the word 
" Colonies " was changed to " States " by act of 
Congress. 

This confederacy existed until July 7, 1778, when 
it was abolished by the communities which had 
made it, and which had declared that it should be 
perpetual. 

Congress put aside the old form and adopted 
a new set of articles of " Confederation and Per- 
petual Union." Again the vote was by States in 
Congress, and by States on the question of rati- 
fication. 

Not till 1781 did Maryland come into this new 
confederation. Where had she been between 1778 
and 1781? What was her political status? She 
was no longer a colony of Great Britain. She was 
not a member of the new confederation. And the 
old confederation had been abolished. If she was 
not a sovereign, independent State, what was 
she? 

Then Congress orders the convention of 1787 to 
revise these Articles of Confederation. A new Con- 

306 



THE CONSTITUTION 

stitution is made, in violation of instructions. These 
are submitted back to the States, acting as States 
— separately and in convention. 

The new Government is to go into effect when- 
ever ratified by nine States. 

What right have nine States to break up the 
old Government? The right of partners to draw 
out of the partnership business. 

Nine States do ratify — others do not. 

What is the attitude of the new Government to 
those which have not ratified? 

The old confederation is destroyed, the new 
Government goes on without them^those outside 
are independent States, just as Mexico, South 
America, and Canada are independent of the new 
Government. 

W^hen George Washington was elected Presi- 
dent Rhode Island and North Carolina were not in 
the Union. Were they still in the old confedera- 
tion? That had been abolished. If not sovereign, 
independent States, to be dealt with as the new 
Government would deal with other foreign States, 
what were they? 

At the time the delegates to the Convention of 
1787 were disregarding instructions and making a 
new Constitution, it was uncertain how far their 
work would be approved. In the first draft of the 
paper the language used was the same as that 
which had been used formerly. 

307 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

The old Articles of Confederation bound thir- 
teen colonies by name. 

The Declaration of Independence claimed the in- 
dependence of thirteen States by name. 

The new Articles of Confederation bound thir- 
teen States by name. 

In the treaty of peace, Great Britain recognized 
the independence of thirteen different States by 
name, and recognized the right of each State to deal 
with the estates, rights, and properties of British 
subjects in each State. 

The first draft of the Constitution of 1787 used 
the words, " We, the People of the United States 
of " — naming the same thirteen States which had 
been " United Colonies." But inasmuch as no one 
could tell which of the States might ratify, it was 
decided to leave off the names. The reason was of 
the simplest and the best; delegates could not pos- 
sibly know in advance what States would agree to 
the radical changes they had made. 

Yet upon this failure to name in advance the 
States which would adopt the new Government in 
place of the old Daniel Webster built up a great 
constitutional argument. 

To each State it was a matter of choice whether 
to go into the new arrangement or to stay out; and 
the people, except as they constituted the separate 
States, had nothing whatever to do with it. 

The very delegates who made the Constitution 
308 



THE CONSTITUTION 

and signed it used tlie same form of signature by 
States which had been in use all the time. Nowhere 
was there the slightest indication that anything 
was contemplated save a compact between States. 



309 



CHAPTER XXXIV 

IN WASHINGTON'S CABINET 

Mr. Jefferson had not reached Monticello be- 
fore he received from President Washington a 
pressing invitation to enter the Cabinet as Secre- 
tary of State. Had he been free to choose the serv- 
ice he liked best he would have returned to France. 
Yielding to the pressure brought to bear, he con- 
sented to accept the Cabinet position, and in 
March, 1790, entered upon the discharge of its 
duties. 

In view of the fact that antagonisms were to 
spring up during this first administration, which 
were destined to leave the republic into two great 
divisions politically, it is a great pity that IMr. Jef- 
ferson was so late in reaching the field. He did not 
get a fair start. 

President Washington had appointed Alexan- 
der Hamilton Secretary of the Treasury; and this 
statesman had so much force of character, so clear 
a conception of what he wanted to do, such strength 
of will, energy of intellect, and such skill in man- 
aging men, that he had well-nigh finished his task, 
won his race, before Jefferson entered the contest. 

310 



IN WASHINGTON'S CABINET 

Hamilton's great purpose was to create a strong 
Government, one which would travel on its own 
legs without dependence upon the States. Into the 
hands of the central power he wished to draw the 
attributes of national sovereignty — consolidating 
the Union. To give it permanence and predomi- 
nance, he wished to bottom it upon the support of 
the rich; and to win this support he meant to run 
the Government in their favor. He had no faith in 
the people, was in no sense a man of the people. 
England yvsls his model. He believed that the Brit- 
ish Constitution was the most perfect the world 
had ever known. As far as possible, he wished ours 
to resemble that. The President could easily be 
made to wield a greater power than a king — the 
sixty-eighth number of The Federalist to the con- 
trary notwithstanding. The Senate, judiciously 
nursed, might come to be the American House of 
Lords. The House of Representatives could be con- 
trolled, as the British House of Commons was, by 
class interest. 

The Constitution forbade the creation of a peer- 
age; but, after all, a peerage is but a privileged 
class, elevated by law or custom above the vulgar, 
indiscriminate herd. What had been done by law 
or custom in all the governments of the Old World 
could be done in the New. We might not call a citi- 
zen Duke, Count, Lord, or Marquis, but that was 
a small matter. The gist of the thing was to create 

311 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

the privileged class. This having been done, the 
good results would soon follow here, as in the Old 
World. The Government having made its combina- 
tion with the rich, could rely upon the support of 
the rich; and the rich would be here what they 
were elsewhere in the modern world — the strong. 

Class rule could not be based here on the land 
monopoly, as in England, or upon monopoly of dig- 
nities and outrageous feudal privileges, as had been 
done in France. 

But it could be done, nevertheless. 

Give to the manufacturing class the right to tax 
the community for their own benefit; give to the 
speculators a direct connection with the national 
treasury; create a national bank, whereby a few 
capitalists should enjoy the enormous, sovereign 
power of controlling the currency of the nation. 
Let these things be done, and out of these germs 
would grow a modern feudalism, a financial aris- 
tocracy, which might one day laugh to scorn the 
wealth of hereditary dukes, trample upon the feel- 
ings and the rights of the unprivileged citizen with 
all the contemptuous indifference of a marquis of 
the old regime, and dominate courts, legislatures, 
and cabinets as few orders of nobility have ever 
dared to do. 

"The people! Why, the people is a great 
beast!" cried Hamilton, meaning, of course, all of 
the human race who had not risen above the com- 

312 



IN WASHINGTON'S CABINET 

mon herd. Greater scorn for the common herd few 
mortals have had than Alexander Hamilton. 

No! He could not create such an aristocracy as 
that of F'rance or England, but yet aristocracy 
could be created. Let the laws discriminate be- 
tween man and man, class and class; throw all of 
the power of the Government to the aid of one class, 
and against the other, and the result would be class 
rule. And what is aristocracy but the rule of a 
class? 

Let the English system of class legislation be 
introduced into the framework of the American re- 
public, and the inevitable result would be that our 
Government would gradually become just what 
England's was, in all essential respects. A finan- 
cial aristocracy would arise out of Government 
privileges and discriminations. Having sprung 
into life by reason of legislative favoritism, the con- 
tinuance of class legislation would be a matter of 
self-preservation to them. Thus they would de- 
pend on Government for existence, they would iden- 
tify themselves with the Government, they would 
sustain it in order to sustain their own advantages, 
and thus there would be in America what there was 
in the Old World — a copartnership between govern- 
ment and privilege. In this way the interest of the 
moneyed class and the Government would become 
identical. Revolt against the dominant class would 
become treason to the Government. Patriotism 

313 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

would mean love of class rule — for class rule and 
government would have become synonymous. Thus 
entrenched behind the safeguards of law and of 
love, who could ever touch a hair of its head? 

As the priesthood can not be assailed without 
raising an outcry that God is being attacked, so the 
rule of the privileged class could never be threat- 
ened without provoking the charge that the Gov- 
ernment was endangered. 

In the Constitutional Convention Elbridge Ger- 
ry, of Massachusetts, had said: 

" All the evils we experience flow from excess 
of democracy." 

Washington had thought that common soldiers 
should serve their country for their victuals and 
clothes. Only the officers should be paid. He re- 
gretted that the law did not allow him to lay five 
hundred lashes upon the back of the common sol- 
dier who broke rules. One hundred lashes, the 
legal limit, was not enough. 

This was the spirit of the leading men who 
threw aside the old confederation and made the 
new Constitution. It is all a mistake to say that 
they meant to establish a rule of the people. On 
the contrary, they meant to make it impossible for 
the people to control the Government. 

In pursuance of this idea they exhausted their 
ingenuity to keep the election of Presidents from 
the direct vote of the masses. They meant that 

314 



IN WASHINGTON'S CABINET 

the electoral colleges should choose independently 
of the people. They meant that the Senate should 
be outside the control of the people. 

And they meant that the judiciary should be 
absolutely independent of the people. 

Men whose purpose it is to establish a democ- 
racy, a government of the people, by the people, 
and for the people, do not go about it in that way. 

But men whose determination it is to create a 
centralized government in which the form of de- 
mocracy is preserved, w^hile all power belongs to 
the privileged classes, could not, under all the 
circumstances, have framed an instrument better 
suited to the purpose than the Constitution of the 
United States. 

Hamilton's system depended upon three great 
measures: Protection to manufacturers at the ex- 
pense of agriculture; a funding system which 
should league the speculators with the national 
treasury; a banking system in which a few should 
exercise the sovereign power of controlling the 
currency of the republic. 

He had hardly taken off his hat and settled 
himself in his office before he began to write laws 
to please the rich, to enlist the rich, to additionally 
enrich the rich. 

By his tariff system he proposed to conceal 
from the citizen the true amount of his taxes, and 
to levy tribute upon the great mass of the people 

315 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

in the interest of a special class. Naturally he 
expected this class, if not already the richest, to 
become so by operation of law; and as the law was 
the source of their fortune, he expected the crea- 
ture to revere the creator. 

Pennsylvania had already set the example of 
taxing the entire community for the benefit of a 
class. Her tariff act of 1785, copied from English 
precedent, had already shown what a demand there 
was for class legislation; and Mr. Hamilton, living 
in a commercial center like New York, was far too 
shrewd to underrate its strength. His position on 
funding and on the assumption of the State debts 
by the National Government drew to him every 
speculator in the land who dabbled in scrip or 
hungered for bonds. 

His national bank measure not only fascinated 
the capitalists of the cities, but gladdened the 
hearts of anti-democrats everywhere, for it was the 
first great step forward in the boundless region of 
implied powers. 

Juggling with the two phrases " general wel- 
fare " and " implied powers," he made blank paper 
of the remainder of the Constitution. If those 
words meant all he claimed, it had been a folly to 
waste time writing the rest of the instrument. 

Had Jefferson received his appointment at the 
same time as Hamilton, if the contest between the 
two had begun with a fair start, it is possible that 

316 



IN WASHINGTON'S CABINET 

even then the impetuosity and daring of Hamilton 
might have prevailed. There were many resources 
at his command, many a persuasive inducement by 
which he could reach the wavering Congressman. 
And as Hamilton openly avowed his belief that 
corruption was a necessary engine of government, 
he would no doubt have corrupted all who were ap- 
proachable. At any rate, Jefferson came too late. 
Hamilton's plans were all under headway. Some 
of them had been adopted. The President and the 
Congress had already formed the habit of doing 
as Hamilton advised. His cohorts had been mar- 
shaled, organized, and fed on victory. To defeat 
him now would be doubly difficult. Hamilton had 
called a lobby into existence; and this uncrowned 
monarch was dictating legislation. 

Not realizing the trend of Hamilton's meas- 
ures, Mr. Jefferson did not at once make any op- 
position. On the contrary, he allowed himself to 
be drawn into Hamilton's plans. There was a dead- 
lock in Congress on the subject of assumption and 
of the location of the national capital. 

Southern men wanted the Federal city built in 
the South, and did not want assumption. North- 
ern men claimed the Federal city, but also wanted 
assumption. 

Here was a chance to log-roll. Jefferson was 
made to believe that the Government was in dan- 
ger of going to pieces over this dispute; and, being 

317 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

appealed to by Hamilton, he agreed to use his in- 
fluence to effect a compromise. 

There was a dinner, a coming together of South- 
ern members and Northern members, a sociable 
sipping of generous wine, a basking in the beams 
of Jeffersonian hospitality, a thawing out of frozen 
geniality, and the birth of a healthy desire to come 
to terms. 

The South gave assumption to the North; the 
North gave the Federal capital to the South. So 
the crisis passed; and Mr. Jefferson felt rew^arded 
for his trouble in the belief that he had helped to 
save the Union. 

Afterward, when he looked back at this epi- 
sode, his serene temper was sorely tried, for it 
dawned upon him that he had been egregiously 
duped by Hamilton. 

The South gained Washington city, and what 
the national capital has ever been worth to us it 
would be hard to say. 

On the subject of the bank, there was a battle 
royal in the Cabinet. Edmund Randolph, Attorney- 
General, as well as Jefferson, opposed it as not 
authorized by the Constitution. 

Hamilton argued that it was a fiscal agency 
which the Government had the " implied power " 
to create. General Knox, Secretary of War, sided 
with Hamilton, as he apparently would have done 
on any proposition whatever. 

318 



IN WASHINGTON'S CABINET 

The President was in doubt, but finally signed 
the bill. 

Thus Ilamilton's policies had been successful. 
His system was complete, and was in operation. 
Time would ripen the harvest. His funding sys- 
tem had created a class which would stand upon a 
different footing from all others. It would own a 
mortgage upon the Government, upon the whole 
Union. To the extent of this mortgage, it would 
pay no taxes. On the contrary, it would fatten upon 
the taxes of others. If to the individual citizen 
debt is bondage, giving to the creditor moral and 
legal power over the man who owes him, the pub- 
lic debt, by operation of the same principle, would 
put the Government under the influence of those 
who held the mortgage on it. The public debt 
being thus an immense advantage to the class 
which owned it, would never be paid. Self-inter- 
est would make it permanent, and keep it growing. 

Just as, in England, the moneyed class who had 
bought up the debt, and who sat back at ease liv- 
ing off the taxes paid by the great mass of the 
people, constituted a money power whose influence 
with the Government kept the debt unpaid and 
increased it as far as was safe, so in America, the 
tree being planted, nothing was necessary but to 
tend it — the fruit would inevitably be the same. 
The owners of the public debt, exempted from tax- 
ation and enriched by the taxes of others; the man- 

319 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

ufacturers, exempted from foreign competition, at 
the expense of the nation at large; the national 
banker, enjoying the vast advantage of controlling 
the currency of the nation; while, at the same 
time, American labor was made subject to the 
competition of the world by liberal immigration 
laws, and American agriculture made to compete 
with ryots of India, the fellahs of Egypt, the serfs 
of Europe, the peons of Mexico, and non-paid labor 
generally — what better foundation for inequality 
could be laid? 

Wealth might fabulously increase, but there 
would be no just distribution. Power might ama- 
zingly develop, but there would be no equilibrium. 
Progress might smash all records, but it would not 
be general. 

Everything depends upon the point of view. If 
it be right to run a government in the interest of a 
selected class; if it be right to allow the privileged 
to use the machinery of legislation to plunder the 
unprivileged; if it be right to make the corruption 
of trusted agents an incident to the government of 
the principals, then Alexander Hamilton deserves 
high rank among statesmen and a loving remem- 
brance with posterity. For it was he who first ar- 
ranged the coalition between the national treasury 
and the money power; it was he who committed the 
Government to the policy of taxing one industry to 
build up another; he who surrendered to a favored 

320 



IN WASHINGTON'S CABINET 

class the sovereign prerogative of creating a cur- 
rency; he who first used corrupt practises to secure 
legislation. 

As surely as harvest is due to sower, Alexander 
Hamilton was the father of plutocracy, the trust, 
and the lobby. 

" The people are a great beast," said the apos- 
tle; and one of his disciples exclaimed, "The pub- 
lic be damned! " 

The spirit of the two expressions is precisely the 
same; and the favored, protected, law-exempt rail- 
way king who could use with impunity the last ex- 
pression was the natural product of the system of 
the statesman who used the first. 



22 321 



CHAPTER XXXV 

THE GENET EPISODE 

Determined to make our Government resemble 
the English, it was a darling project with Hamil- 
ton, Jay, and other Federalists of that type to bring 
about friendly relations with Great Britain. 

It was no easy task. England was sore over 
the loss of her colonies. She was aching to revenge 
herself upon America and upon France. She re- 
fused to give up the forts on the Northwest fron- 
tier. As Jefferson demonstrated in a masterly 
state paper, her excuses were flimsy, untenable. 
She could not answer his argument, and did not 
try. She simply held on to the forts. From these 
forts Indians went forth, fired with hatred and 
whisky, to make war upon American settlements. 

She claimed and exercised the right to halt our 
ships upon the seas, to search them, and to drag 
from our decks such sailors as her navy might 
need. Her pretense was the retaking of her own 
seamen; her practise was to take whom she pleased. 

But the Federalists curbed their indignation; 
from them no loud protest was heard. And when 
France sent over her minister. Genet, and the time 

322 



THE GENET EPISODE 

came when our Government had to show its hand, 
it suddenly appeared more amiable to our late foe 
than to our late friend. 

Without exception, our historians have treated 
the Genet episode from the standpoint of the old 
Federalist party. Therefore, the average Ameri- 
can gets an impression so misleading as to be 
wholly false. 

The democracy of France, like the democracy of 
America, had made war upon a king, and had estab- 
lished a republic. In our struggle, French money 
and French blood had been poured out in our be- 
half. It was not the money of the King of France; 
it was not the blood of the King of France; it was 
the blood and the money of the people of France. 
The powerful undertow of sympathy with America 
which had dragged the French minister off his feet, 
and made the French alliance imperative, came, 
not from the torpid King, but from the aroused 
people. Every time the royal pen was laid to paper 
in America's behalf it was done under protest. 

These people who had rushed to America's aid 
in the darkest hour of her Revolution had now ac- 
complished a revolution of their own. America's 
example had encouraged them, inspired them, 
shown them the way. Now that the French mon- 
archy was down and democracy triumphant, Great 
Britain had chosen to interfere, had made the 
King's cause her own, and had consecrated her- 

323 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

self to the unholy purpose of restoring in Europe 
the tyranny of aristocracy and King.^ Great Brit- 
ain had blockaded France and dismissed from Lon- 
don the French minister. War was begun before 
the French Republic ever published her declaration. 

What more natural than that the French, at 
this crisis, should look to the American people 
for sympathy and help! There were the two 
republics; their common enemy was monarchical 
England. Without French aid, the American re- 
public could not have been established. America 
still owed France a huge debt — partly of gratitude, 
partly of prosaic cash. 

And France, in sending Genet to America, vir- 
tually said to us what Beauregard's messenger said 
to Johnston on the eve of Manassas, " If you want 
to help me, now is the time! " 

Genet came. He was young; he was untutored 
in statecraft and the ways of diplomacy; he was 
fresh from scenes of democratic excitement; the 
gospel of brotherly love was burning hotly within 
him. Never for one moment did he doubt that the 
heart of the American people beat warmly for the 
young French Republic. He expected to be re- 
ceived with open arms, with the gladdest smile of 
greeting, with the closest hug of fraternity. 

Had not young Lafayette broken out of con- 

* See full account in the author's The Story of France, and his Na- 
poleon. 

324 



THE GENET EPISODE 

ventional restraints in France, and hastened to 
the arms of Washington? Had not young liocham- 
beau led the lines at the final assault at York- 
town? 

Were we not all brothers in the holy cause 
of democracy? Genet assumed that we were, im- 
plicitly believed that we were, unhesitatingly acted 
upon the conviction that we were. 

For at Charleston, where he landed first, there 
was nothing to correct his impressions. Everybody 
was glad to see him. Shouts of welcome rose 
around him. Open arms were thrown about him in 
the brotherly embrace. Ovations filled his young 
heart with patriotic joy. 

Commissions to send out privateers against the 
British? Why, of course. Governor Moultrie was 
the same old hero who had won that first victory 
over the common enemy; Governor Moultrie would 
sign commissions to fit out the privateers. Cheer- 
fully. 

And so he did, the treaty with France appear- 
ing to bind the Americans to do that very thing. 

Privateers put to sea, and British commerce be- 
gan to suffer. Genet set out for Philadelphia, by 
land. His journey was like a royal progress. The 
hearts of the people were with him. Where else 
could they be? Could America so soon forget? Did 
she have no gratitude? Was she incapable of gen- 
erous enthusiasm for France in her efforts to es- 

325 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

tablish a republic? Had America no responsive 
chord which might be touched by the struggles of 
other people for political freedom? 

The historians are cold. They sneer at Genet. 
They mock his references to liberty, equality, fra- 
ternity. They heap ridicule upon his " sentimental 
appeals." " Sentiment," it would seem, is, his- 
torically, a felony. French enthusiasm for our 
struggles might have been natural, even com- 
mendable; but the idea was preposterous that 
Americans should have enthusiasm for struggling 
France. This historical tone grows out of the 
necessity of the case. The British faction dom- 
inated Washington's Cabinet; the British faction 
set its face like flint against Genet; the British 
faction was able to convince Washington that he 
ought to ignore what France had done for us, and 
to virtually say to Great Britain and the French, 
" Fight it out between yourselves." 

So that when Genet reached Philadelphia, and 
had lapped himself in the luxury of unbounded en- 
thusiasm there, and then went into the presiden- 
tial presence, expecting his ofiScial welcome to be 
of the very warmest kind, he suddenly encountered 
an iceberg. He was enlightened as to the situation 
with cruel candor and promptitude. 

Washington's greeting was formal, and cer- 
tainly not warm. Washington's proclamation was, 
practically, a repudiation of the treaty. Washing- 

326 



THE GENET EPISODE 

ton's orders as to the privateers recognized no 
obligations to France, and indicated no friend- 
ship. 

Genet's disillusion was complete and most 
painful. 

The struggling French Republic, like the thir- 
teen American colonies, was sorely in need of 
money. Genet asked for no gifts. The return of 
the donations the French had made to aid the strug- 
gling colonies was not expected; but Genet did ask 
that the subsequent sums, which had been loaned, 
might now be repaid. 

Hamilton refused. The debts were not due, and 
it would be inconvenient to pay them. Should 
America discharge the debts before they were due 
Great Britain might take offense! 

Can any American citizen of the present day 
read that statement and not feel ashamed? 

But this was not all. Genet, deeply hurt at the 
refusal to pay, and at the reason assigned, pro- 
posed to transfer the French claims to American 
merchants in exchange for food and clothing for 
the needy soldiers of France, who, barefooted, in 
rags, and almost unfed, were following the flag in 
the cause of liberty, just as the poor American sol- 
diers had done only a few years before. 

And Washington's Government, dominated by 
Hamilton, refused to allow Genet that poor privi- 
lege! 

327 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Great Britain might not like it! 

Is it any wonder that young Genet lost his 
temper? 

The American of our day who can read this 
chapter in our history, and be proud of it, will also 
be proud of the attitude of our Government when 
Great Britain, partly by the help of supplies bought 
from us in violation of treaty, was trampling the 
life out of the South African rej^ublics. But no 
other citizen can be proud of it. 

Yes, young Genet lost his temper; and, like all 
men in a passion, did things that hurt his cause. 
He gave John Jay, Hamilton, Kuf us King, and other 
Federalists the excuse to say that he had insulted 
the President. Genet appealed to Washington to 
correct the slander, and Washington tightened the 
mantle of presidential dignity around him, refusing 
to notice the appeal. 

Democratic societies had sprung up everywhere, 
and Genet had multitudes of friends; but he could 
not afford to match himself against Washington, 
nor did he try. He protested as well as he could, 
but he was powerless. Jefferson was secretly in 
sympathy with him almost to the last; but even 
Jefferson realized that the issue could not be met 
on the ground where the Federalists had put it. 
He abandoned Genet to his fate, which, indeed, was 
not personally ruinous, for the young man won the 
heart and hand of the daughter of Governor Clin- 

328 



THE GENET EPISODE 

ton of New York, and settled down to the life of a 
private citizen. 

Not only were the British assured that this Gov- 
ernment would pay all damages inflicted by the 
privateers fitted out from our ports, but they were 
permitted to seize French property on American 
vessels, as well as American property on American 
vessels, if such property chanced to be foodstufl:s 
on the way to hungry France! 

Worse than all — during the entire period cov- 
ered by the controversy with Genet, British war- 
vessels continued to capture American seamen 
wherever and whenever they could, and to impress 
them to service, exile, and death on English ships! 

Greater humiliations were never endured than 
those we bore in the efforts to make terms with 
England. We broke with a true and tried friend 
to prepare the way for alliance with an inveterate 
enemy. The reason assigned by Hamilton, Jay, and 
the Federalists generally, was that another war 
with Great Britain would ruin us. 

To keep peace we inflicted upon ourselves and 
upon France cruel wrong — and yet we had England 
to fight, after all! 

Had we kept faith, had we been true to treaty, 
had we paid France our debts of gratitude and of 
money, who can say that it might not have been 
better for us as well as for France? 

Great Britain divided her foes — thanks to Ham- 
329 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

ilton. She fought France, and kept us from aiding 
her. And then she fought us, when France could 
not help us. Had we made common cause, she 
might not have attacked either. Thus each of the 
three nations suffered because of the broken treaty. 

Before the Revolution there had, of course, been 
no national political parties. Whigs and Tories 
there were, and divisions on local colonial ques- 
tions. During the war all Americans who fought 
for independence were classed as Whigs, those op- 
posed as Tories. When the new Constitution was 
on trial those who favored it were called Federal- 
ists, those opposed Anti-Federalists. By the time 
Jefferson had taken in the full significance of the 
Hamilton policies, an opposition lifted its head, 
and took the name Republican. By that name he 
himself always referred to his party. Its founder 
believed that Hamilton and his followers were aim- 
ing at monarchy. This did not necessarily mean 
that Jefferson thought Hamilton aimed at setting 
up a king; it meant that republican ideals, demo- 
cratic principles, were being put aside. If this 
tendency was to be checked, if the monarchical 
spirit was to be kept out, then organized opposition 
was necessary. To organize this opposition and 
to dedicate the new Government to the true re- 
publican ideals, became the mission of Jefferson's 
life. 

And therein consists his greatness. 
330 



THE GENET EPISODE 

Edmund Randolph was perhaps quite as brainy 
a man as Jefferson; Patrick Henry in some respects 
excelled him; Madison, in his own narrower limits, 
was as efficient; but in combination of high quali- 
ties, and in consecration of lofty purpose, none of 
these bear comparison to Jefferson. 

With him, as with Hamilton, the purpose was to 
found a system, establish a creed, shape the future 
of generations yet unborn. To do this was a duty, 
a mission. He had no option; it was work imposed 
upon him by the law of his nature. He believed in 
the people, was willing to trust the people; the 
name of which he grew proudest was " the man of 
the people." At all points his system, his creed, 
collided with that of Hamilton. The things Ham- 
ilton was seeking to do were those which Jefferson 
most abhorred. 

He did not want Europe repeated here. Above 
all things, he dreaded that. Had American pio- 
neers fled to this continent to escape the abuses of 
European systems only to have those abuses intro- 
duced again? After all the sacrifices and victories 
of the Revolutionary War, in which king, aristoc- 
racy, and class legislation had been cast aside, 
were we to voluntarily fasten upon our necks the 
same yoke in another form? Was humanity never 
to learn its lesson? Was the past never to be re- 
spected as a teacher? 

The conception of Mr. Jefferson was that the 
331 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

world was making one more great effort to evolve 
a higher, better system of government than Europe 
had ever known; and it galled him to see that 
statesmen like Hamilton were merely attempting 
to secure such legislation, establish such institu- 
tions, as would give us as good a system as the 
abominably unjust system of Great Britain. 

Right or wrong, this was Jefferson's attitude; 
and to understand him, it is necessary to place one- 
self at that point of view. 

He detested Hamilton, not as a personal enemy, 
but as the most dangerous champion of the anti- 
republican, anti-democratic spirit. He hated, not 
the man, but the system. 

Washington had endeavored to govern with a 
non-partizan Cabinet. The attempt was a failure. 
Parties sprang up at the very council-board, the 
two great secretaries striking at each other like 
fighting-cocks. 

Hamilton's party established a newspaper or- 
gan, Fenno's Gazette. 

Jefferson's party founded Freneau's Gazette. 

The rival papers hammered each other and the 
leaders on each side in the manner since grown so 
familiar. Hamilton was not spared, Jefferson was 
assaulted, Washington himself roundly abused. 
Freneau was a clerk in the State Department, with 
a salary of two hundred and fifty dollars per year. 
The President seemed to think that Jefferson should 

332 



THE GENET EPISODE 

dismiss the troublesome editor, but the Secretary 
declined to do so. Those who claim that Jefferson 
was deficient in courage have many obstacles to 
overcome, and this braving of the wrath of Wash- 
ington is one of them. 

But Mr. Jefferson had no fondness for the 
heated atmosphere of personal dispute and wran- 
gles; by nature he preferred the calm of libraries 
and the upper regions of philosophic thought. 
Speeches he would not make, newspaper contro- 
versies he would not wage. Plans of campaing he 
would furnish to lieutenants, marching orders to 
battalions, but for the actual scene of strife, the 
hurly-burly of knock down and drag out, he was 
unfitted. He feared no one, shrank from no posi- 
tion, compromised no principle to save himself, de- 
serted no friend because the world was against 
him; but yet he had that high sense of personal dig- 
nity which held him aloof from any line of action 
inconsistent with his ideal of the statesman. A 
Wellington might not be afraid to take off his coat 
to fight the regimental bully; but no one would ex- 
pect to see a Wellington do a thing of that kind. 

It was Wellington's business to plan the cam- 
paign and direct the combats of other men. Let 
bullies fight bullies. 

But while Mr. Jefferson took no hand in this 
newspaper war, Hamilton did. Holding his rival 
responsible for all that Freneau had written, Ham- 

333 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

ilton assailed Jefferson violently, but the purpose 
failed. Jefferson paid no attention to him. 

President Washington was grieved and scandal- 
ized at this state of things in his non-partizan Cab- 
inet. In the noblest spirit he endeavored to com- 
pose the unseemly strife. But each Secretary was 
without fault in his own eyes; and the breach was 
not healed. Hamilton wrote the President a let- 
ter of justification, and Jefferson did likewise — and 
Federalists have never ceased to resent the fact 
that of the two letters Jefferson's is the stronger. 

His position having become irksome to him, Mr. 
Jefferson offered more than once to resign. At the 
urgent request of the President, however, he held 
on till January 1, 1794, when he retired, carrying 
with him as warm a letter of commendation as 
Washington could write. 

In The True Thomas Jefferson, Mr. William 
Eleroy Curtis states that Jefferson " was compelled 
to resign from the Cabinet." This surprising state- 
ment is not only contradicted by all the previous 
biographers of Mr. Jefferson, but is contradicted by 
Washington himself. 

In his letter of January 1, 1794, he says to Mr. 
Jefferson: 

" I yesterday received with sincere regret your 
resignation of the office of Secretary of State. 
Since it has been impossible to prevail upon you 
to forego any longer the indulgence of your de- 

334 



THE GENET EPISODE 

sire for private life, the event, however auxious I 
am to prevent it, must be submitted to." 

He then goes on to pay a high tribute to his 
retiring Secretary. 

If Mr. Curtis had investigated his subject he 
would have learned that General Washington 
sought to win Jefferson back to service of his ad- 
ministration by offering a special mission to Spain. 
Mr. Jefferson declined in a letter which bears date 
September 7, 1794. 

The statements made by Mr. Curtis that Wash- 
ington wished Jefferson out of the Cabinet, that 
Jefferson promised several times to get out, and 
that he was at last forced out, are untrue. 

Mr. Jefferson's popularity and reputation were 
greatly increased by his record as Secretary of 
State. He had diligently applied himself to the 
routine work of his department, improving the 
postal service; arranging treaties with Indian 
tribes; laying off the new Federal city and planning 
its public buildings; making exhaustive studies and 
reports on uniformity of coinage, weights, and 
measures; and all such other matters as then fell 
within the duties of Secretary of State. It was 
upon his recommendation that the Government de- 
cided to coin its own money, and the mint at Phila- 
delphia was established. His correspondence with 
Genet, and with the English minister, Mr. Ham- 
mond, was highly approved, and the opposition 

335 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

which he had made to Hamilton's policies gave him 
his first prominence as the leader of a distinct polit- 
ical party. The sentiment which he represented, the 
principles of which he made himself the exponent 
and champion, were as yet unorganized; but they 
were powerful, and Jefferson was their prophet. It 
began to appear then, as it more clearly appears 
now, that, as Hamilton stood for a class and for a 
government of special privilege, Jefferson stood for 
the mass of the people and a government of equal 
rights to all. 

Yet, so great was his tact, his smoothness of 
manner and method, that he probably counted as 
many personal friends among Hamilton's follow- 
ers as Hamilton himself could claim. Although he 
did not treat his friends as if they might one day 
become enemies — thus hastening the coming of 
that day — he did behave toward his enemies very 
much as if they might at some future time see their 
error and become friends — as most of them actu- 
ally did. In fact, Jefferson united in himself two 
distinct qualities: he was a consummate man of the 
world in his social relations with others, and, at the 
same time, he fought for his creed with the stub- 
bornness of a fanatic. 

He had all the reforming zeal of Luther, with- 
out his brutality; and all the scholarly polish of 
Erasmus, without his timidity. He was not con- 
tent to merely draw the curtains, drink tea in the 

336 



THE GENET EPISODE 

library, and slay dragons with his pen; not con- 
tent to leave his brethren out in the storm, while 
he himself lounged, in slippered feet, by the cheer- 
ful blaze. 

From the memorable day of Patrick Henry's 
speech in the Burgesses, when Jefferson, the col- 
lege student, had stood in the door of the lobby 
listening, he had been in the very front rank of the 
fighters. He had written the first resolutions which 
declared for independence, at a time when Henry 
and Washington were still posing as subjects of the 
King. His Summary View was the bravest paper 
in all the literature of that early day, and the 
ablest. It put his neck in the halter, in the event 
rebellion did not succeed. 

Time and again he had come forward in public 
bodies with papers that were rejected for the rea- 
son that they were too bold. Never had a line of 
his been put aside because it w^as too timid. Jeffer- 
son's timidity is biographical fruit solely — planted 
by the imaginative, cultivated by the imitative, and 
swallowed by the simple. 

The ink on the Declaration of Independence was 
hardly dry when this same timid Jefferson hurried 
to Virginia, challenged the proud, strong aristoc- 
racy of the Old Dominion to the field, and unhorsed 
it in fair fight. Then he accomplished what French 
Revolutionists found it so hard to do, and what 
Mr. Gladstone found it so hard to do in Ireland, and 
23 337 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

what no man has been able to do in England to this 
day — he disestablished the state Church. 

Not only that! He told the whites they ought 
to free the blacks; and told the rich they ought to 
tax themselves to educate the poor! More than 
that, even — he told old William and Mary College 
that she must turn out two ridiculous doctors of 
divinity and otherwise modernize her antiquated 
institution. 

Yet so scholarly a writer as Henry Cabot Lodge 
makes timidity a salient feature of Jefferson's 
character; and Mr. Roosevelt continually repeats 
that he was " tveak and vacillating ! " 



The last patent Mr. Jefferson issued while he 
was Secretary of State was to Eli Whitney for the 
cotton-gin. 

Mr. Whitney was doubtless an original inventor 
and was entitled to the patent he got and the for- 
tune he made; but just as certainly as there were 
steamboats before Fulton's there was a cotton-gin 
before Whitney's! Within a few miles of where 
the present writer lives, an inventive, enterprising 
genius, Jesse Bull, who moved into Georgia from 
Maryland, operated a primitive cotton-gin with a 
packing-box run by an iron screw. 

The descendants of Jesse Bull were schoolmates 
of the author, and he has seen ancient papers pre- 

338 



THE GENET EPISODE 

served in the family, and has heard the talk of old 
citizens who were conversant with neighborhood 
traditions. There is no doubt that the cotton-gin, 
like the steamboat, like the sewing-machine, and 
like the breech-loading gun, had entered into the 
heads of others than the final patentee. Colonel 
Tarleton had a breech-loading gun in our Revolu- 
tionary War, and there is one in the Tower of Lon- 
don which must be hundreds of years old. That 
the invention was offered to Napoleon Bonaparte 
by a Prussian mechanic is well known. Therefore, 
in the case of the cotton-gin, there is nothing in- 
credible in the story that Jesse Bull was using both 
gin and press when Whitney was working out his 
idea of the gin. 

The Patent Office had just been established, and 
Bull may have known nothing of it till too late. 
Whitney was from the North, was intimate with 
General Nathaniel Greene, and through his intro- 
duction could reach the Patent Office with every- 
thing in his favor. He got the patent, and then 
used the Federal courts to stop Jesse Bull. The 
cases in the Federal courts never came to a trial, 
for reasons which can not now be known. 



339 



CHAPTER XXXVI 

AT MONTICELLO AGAIN 

During his term in the Cabinet, Mr. Jefferson 
had been to Monticello for an occasional vacation, 
but not long enough to get his affairs in order. 

He now found them in bad shape. The over- 
seer, it appears, had let everything go to waste. 
There were one hundred and fifty-four negro slaves 
and three sheep. The fences and buildings were 
dilapidated, the mountain-slope fields were washed 
into gullies and " galls." The yield of wheat seems 
to have got down to where it was a case of " nip 
and tuck " to get the seed back. The one crop on 
the place which never failed was — debts. 

When Mr. Jefferson set out for France he had 
left many unpaid accounts behind him, not inclu- 
ding the British encumbrance on the lands. These 
various obligations soon made an interest charge 
upon his resources of about two thousand dollars 
per year. 

The mansion at Monticello had never been com- 
pleted. He was still at work on it. Europe had 
given him some new ideas, and into his model home 
some of these new ideas must go. Changes had to 

340 



AT MONTICELLO AGAIN 

be made, additions planned, perfections worked out 
— regardless of cost. The dome had not been put 
on; some of the walls were not even ready for the 
roof. At such tasks slaves were kept employed; 
and had the overseers been asked what was the 
matter with Mr. Jefferson's affairs, they might have 
replied that a good deal of his financial un- 
healthiness was due to the everlasting labor and 
expense connected with the building of the model 
house. 

When Mr. Curtis states that the entire cost of 
this building was less than eight thousand dollars, 
he comes almost as near the facts as when he says 
that Washington compelled Jefferson's resignation 
from the Cabinet. 

Martha Jefferson had married Thomas Mann 
Randolph (February 23, 1790), and she now had two 
children. Mr. Jefferson was so devoted to his 
daughter and her children that Monticello contin- 
ued to be her home. 

Maria is described as being " a vision of beauty." 
She was soon to become the wife of John Eppes. 
Both of Mr. Jefferson's sons-in-law were in Con- 
gress while he was President. 

A democrat to the core, in principle Mr. Jeffer- 
son was a grand seigneur in his manner of life. The 
flock of sheep might dwindle to three, but the num- 
ber of saddle-horses was eight. Thirty-seven bush- 
els of wheat was the crop for 1794, and the servants 

341 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

who dawdled about the mansion probably exceeded 
that number. On his home farm of two thousand 
acres it was necessary to buy five more horses be- 
fore he could get his fourth plow going, there being 
eight horses to the plow. 

At this time, 1794, it appears from his land-roll 
that his estate had shrunk to 10,647 acres, com- 
paratively little of which was in cultivation. It 
does not seem that there was any net income at all 
now from the farms. There was a thirty thousand 
dollar grist-mill on the Rivanna, which did not pay; 
there was the weaving of cloth, the forging of nails, 
and the other farm industries common to large 
plantations of that day, but Monticello was never 
a farm in the sense that Mount Vernon was. Wash- 
ington was a practical farmer, and made the busi- 
ness yield a profit; Mr. Jefferson was not a prac- 
tical farmer, and did not make his land pay. At 
least, that is the opinion the present writer has 
reached after considerable investigation. 

Back at Monticello, Mr. Jefferson put his whole 
heart into the work of renovation. Trim lines of 
fruit-trees, to run where zigzag fences had rotted, 
were set — an idea brought from France. Artistic 
touches on house and grounds, on lawn, terrace, 
and garden, were expensively applied — suggestions 
brought from Italy or England. New ways of 
rotating crops, resting land, restoring land, in- 
creasing the output, were tried — hints picked up 

342 



wimmM 



i' 




ISAAC SHKLHY. 



AT MONTICELLO AGAIN 

in conversations with learned academical farm- 
ers or from books which were convincing to the 
mind. 

It was a delight to Mr. Jefferson to apply his me- 
chanical and mathematical gifts to practical pur- 
poses. He doted on experiment. He burned to 
make improvements. He reached out to grasp new 
fields in thought and achievement. He realized the 
vast possibilities of chemistry when a savant like 
Buffon was classing the science with cookery; he 
saw a flying-machine worked by a screw in Paris, 
and expressed the belief that the screw-propeller in 
water would be even more effective. He reduced to 
writing a mathematical formula for making an im- 
proved mold-board for a turn-plow, and took a 
gold prize on it in France. 

He made for his own use a folding chair, a copy- 
press, an extension top to his carriage, a one-horse 
" sulky," and numerous other inventions, any one 
of which would have made some Yankee's fortune. 
He introduced the first thrashing-machine ever 
brought to this country, and he was one of the first 
to import Merino sheep. He was a man whose 
originality sometimes crossed the line of the lu- 
dicrous. The interior of his house gives evi- 
dences of this. For instance, there was an opening 
in the wall between his wife's bedroom and his own, 
the bed occupying the open space. Thus he could 
enter the bed at night from his room, and she from 

343 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

hers. In like manner they could separate of morn- 
ings. A good arrangement, but peculiar. 

It was just such oddities as these which caused 
some matter-of-fact people to make fun of the sage 
of Monticello. Toleration is yet a myth, and the 
unwritten law is that you must conform. 

Mr. Jefferson was not a conformer, had no such 
reverence for antiquity as to resent the appearance 
of the new moon and to resist a change in the 
weather; consequently he often did things which 
shocked the conservatives. 

Days of joy these were to this lover of Nature in 
all her moods, in all her myriad displays of sub- 
limity or beauty. To whom did a flower speak in a 
language more touching than to this great states- 
man? lie would bend over violet or lily, over tulip 
or rose, with a rapt enjoyment which never grew 
old, never grew cold. With every return of the 
spring his love was that of youth for the flowers. 

And the birds — the birds! Did the musicians of 
the woods ever have a better friend? He loved 
their presence, loved their beauty, loved their song, 
loved their love of life. 

Read his letters to the children; note his yearn- 
ing to plant in their hearts the love of birds and 
flowers. See how earnestly he instils into young 
minds the true refinement to which every charm 
of nature is a poem without rhyme, a song with- 
out words. 

344 



AT MONTICELLO AGAIN 

As a young lawyer, he sketched out his plans for 
the home ideal, and the care with which he ex- 
pected to attract the birds to come and live with 
him was written down with sober earnestness. 

Protect the birds! When President of the 
United States he wrote his daughter: " I sincerely 
congratulate you on the arrival of the mocking- 
bird. Learn the children to venerate it as a su- 
perior being in the form of a bird, or as a being 
which will haunt them if any harm is done to itself 
or its eggs." 

In spite of debts and the devastations of over- 
seers, therefore, Mr. Jefferson spent happily the 
year 1794 at Monticello, taking only a casual inter- 
est in passing events. His time had not come to 
change the policies of the Government. 

He could and would write letters to certain 
prominent friends here and there, keeping in 
touch with public affairs, at the same time that 
he was putting out peach-trees and watching 
the progress of lucerne and peas. When the 
Whisky Rebellion broke out in Pennsylvania, and 
disappeared at the advance of the troops, Mr. 
Jefferson's sympathies were rather with the mal- 
contents than with the law, for the excise he 
thought was infernal. When John Jay went to 
England, negotiated a treaty which left Great Brit- 
ain free to continue the seizure of our ships and our 
sailors, while it forbade us to export cotton and a 

345 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

good many other things, he saw as clearly as any 
one how the honor of the nation had been sacrificed 
to Kew England commerce; but when Washington 
gave the treaty his sanction, he, like thousands of 
others, had to swallow his indignation, and hope 
for better things. 

He witnessed the complete triumph of the Brit- 
ish faction in Washington's Cabinet, and deplored 
it. He saw Edmund Randolph — the young Virgin- 
ian who had left everything, broken every tie, to 
join Washington and serve his country — saw him 
cast out on no other proof than a doubtful sentence 
found in the captured despatches of the French 
minister. 

At this time General Washington, as Mr. Jeffer- 
son thought, was in his decline. Age had impaired 
his memory and the firmness of his mind. He was 
surrounded by inferior men, who were under Ham- 
ilton's sway, and the President was controlled by 
them to a greater extent than he realized. So 
thought Mr. Jefferson. A letter of his to Mazzei, 
the Italian who had been his neighbor, alluded to 
the English faction which had secured control, and 
they were called " apostates . . . men who were 
Samsons in the field and Solomons in the council, 
but who have had their heads shorn by the harlot, 
England." 

The British faction, every ready to put Wash- 
ington between themselves and the enemy, thrust 

346 



AT MONTICELLO AGAIN 

him forward once more, claiming that Jefferson's 
reference was to Mm. 

This Mr. Jefferson denied, contending that his 
reference was to Hamilton, Jay, and others of the 
Federalist party. 

The Federalist papers attacked Mr. Jefferson on 
account of this letter, just as they attacked him on 
other points, and he paid no more attention to this 
attack than he did to the others. When Mr. Curtis 
says that '' never before had he avoided a newspa- 
per controversy," his statement amounts to noth- 
ing more than an addition to the errors already 
contained in The True Thomas Jefferson. Never 
was Mr. Jefferson a newspaper controversialist till 
he fell into the clutches of William Eleroy Curtis. 
This author further states that from the time of 
the Mazzel letter Washington and Jefferson 
" ceased all correspondence and intercourse." 

The slightest comparison of dates will convince 
even Mr. Curtis that he has erred. The Mazzei let- 
ter caused no rupture between Washington and 
Jefferson at the time. 

Subsequent to that, friendly letters passed, cor- 
dial personal relations continued to exist, and 
Washington entertained Jefferson at his table. 
They parted affectionately after John Adams's in- 
auguration. 

It was a letter which John Nicholas wrote 
Washington, long after the Mazzei letter, which 

347 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

caused Washington to express the doubt as to Jef- 
ferson's sincerity. The contents of the Nicholas 
letter are not known. 

As a matter of fact, Mr. Jefferson was always 
careful to draw a distinction between Washington 
and the Hamilton-Wolcott-Pickering clique, which 
too often influenced him. In none of his most pri- 
vate letters will expressions disrespectful to the 
Father of his Country be found. 

And when Mount Yernon had lost its master, 
when the land was in mourning, the English Chan- 
nel fleet lowering its flags, and Napoleon Bonaparte 
paying public tribute to the simple private citizen 
who slept on the Potomac, what was the attitude 
of the rivals, Thomas Jefferson and Alexander 
Hamilton? 

The political foe, Jefferson, penned the most 
discriminating and permanently valuable tribute 
that has ever been paid to Washington's character; 
while Hamilton, the political friend of the dead 
man, wrote that cold and selfish letter in which 
he told the heart-broken widow how service- 
able Washington had been to him! Hamilton had 
lost an a?gis necessary to his protection and to 
his schemes — and that was the thought which was 
uppermost in the Hamilton mind as the Masons 
clapped their hands over and beside the bier, and 
the war-horse, riderless forever, followed his master 
to his tomb. 

348 



AT MONTICELLO AGAIN 

Eveu while Death had the great soklier by the 
throat, choking his life out with frightful cruelty, 
the precious old Federalist clique was planning to 
run Washington again for the presidency in order 
that they might remain in the high places from 
which the people were about to cast them! 



349 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

ADAMS AS PRESIDENT 

So rapid had been the growth of opposition to 
the policies of Washington's administration that 
it was only by what Hamilton called " a kind of 
miracle " that he did not receive his rebuke at the 
next election. Had Thomas Jefferson been our sec- 
ond President, owing his success, as he would have 
done, to his disapproval of the Federalist measures, 
history would have been compelled to say that 
Washington retired from office under a vote of cen- 
sure. 

Aided by all the advantages of patronage, posi- 
tion, and Washington's overshadowing influence, 
John Adams defeated Thomas Jefferson by only 
three votes, and these were due to some accidental 
circumstances. 

A more pathetic figure than Adams during the 
four years of his presidency has seldom been seen 
in that high office. 

An apjjroved patriot, a man of great ability and 
experience, he entered upon his duties heavily 
handicapped by his surroundings and by the in- 
firmities of his own character. Mr. Adams was 

350 



ADAMS AS PRESIDENT 

learned, honest, and capable, but his vanity, jeal- 
ousy, and irritability amounted almost to mono- 
mania. His situation was even worse than his 
temper, for the election had shown that he was 
practically the President of a minority. To make 
his lot peculiarly wretched, this minority was fac- 
tious. It worshiped three gods, the least of whom 
was Adams. Washington first, Hamilton second, 
Adams third and last, was the order in which Fed- 
eralism bowed to its divinities. 

Besides all this, Adams inherited the complica- 
tions Washington had made, without succeeding to 
Washington's capacity to deal with them. 

The woes of our second President began with 
his inauguration. On that day, when all right- 
minded people should have worshiped the rising 
sun, Adams, they had perversely prostrated them- 
selves before W^ashington, the setting sun. Every- 
body had eyes and acclamations for Washington; 
few, indeed, paid proper attention to Adams. The 
ingoing President would have been more than hu- 
man had he not been hurt; and being just human, 
he suffered. 

This, however, was trivial and temporary; 
Washington would go to Mount Vernon, and Phila- 
delphia would then belong to President Adams. 
Such would have been the case had not Adams him- 
self ordered otherwise. Making the mistake which 
doomed him, he took Washington's Cabinet just as 

351 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

he found it, thus saddling himself with councilors 
who had grown accustomed to the dictation of 
Hamilton. 

Fastened in this way to policies and to advisers 
which he could not control, the President stumbled 
along from one defeat and humiliation to another, 
until he had turned his political friends into ene- 
mies, without having changed enemies into friends. 
For the first of his troubles Mr. Adams was not re- 
sponsible. 

President Washington had sent James Monroe 
on a mission to France, and had recalled him in 
disgrace. 

Monroe was not the ablest of Virginians, but 
George Washington himself was not a truer, clean- 
er man. As a mere schoolboy James Monroe had 
run off to the war, had fought gallantly, had led the 
attack on the British in the streets of Trenton, and 
had got a bullet in his shoulder which he carried 
the remainder of his life. Monroe had served with 
the French, appreciated the help the French gave 
us at that crisis, and carried to France a lively rec- 
ollection of the days when he and the French offi- 
cers had gone into battle side by side to face Brit- 
ish guns. 

Gouverneur Morris had been our minister to 
France succeeding Jefferson, and Morris had given 
the republicans such offense that they insisted 
upon his recall. 

352 



ADAMS AS PRESIDENT 

Washington sent Monroe, after having tendered 
the place to others, who declined. 

Monroe was young, and had not yet lost ca- 
pacity for enthusiasm. Caught up in the whirl- 
wind of democratic passion in Paris, the young 
Virginian's conduct was very different from that of 
the aristocrat, Gouverneur Morris. 

The National Convention of France (which had 
just overthrown Robespierre and put an end to 
the Reign of Terror) gave Monroe a public recep- 
tion. Overlooking Genet's treatment, making no 
references to the broken alliance of 1778, nor to 
our refusal to pay France some of the debt we owed 
her when her need was so great, the French Na- 
tional Convention greeted James Monroe with loud 
applause, and the President gave him the brotherly 
embrace. 

The Convention decreed that the flags of the 
United States and of France should be intertwined; 
and, thus joined together, should be displayed in 
the hall of the Convention as a sign to all the world 
of the union and the eternal friendship of the two 
people — of the sister republics! 

Join the flags together; hang them in the hall 
where the universe can see; France is not ashamed 
nor afraid to let every monarchy in Europe know 
how her people love Americans and their re- 
public ! 

Thus the voice of France! And this was at a 
24 353 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

time when every king in the civilized world was 
banded against her and marching upon her. 

What was the response of our Government? 
Edmund Randolph, acting under the orders of 
Washington and his Cabinet, wrote to Monroe a 
stinging letter of rebuke. His course had been too 
friendly. It would embarrass us with England. 
Monroe should have expressed his good-will to the 
French Republic privately, " because the dictates 
of sincerity do not demand that we should render 
notorious all our feelings in favor of that nation." 
In other words, our friendship must be of the cau- 
tious sort which shrinks from open avowal. 

Thomas Paine had aided the French Revolution 
as he had aided ours. He had risked his head first 
for the republicans when the King was still strong, 
and then for mercy when democracy was victorious 
and the King's life demanded. He had stood 
against all odds opposing the King's execution. 
Robespierre's faction marked him for the guillotine. 
The July revolt against Robespierre saved him. 
But he still lay in jail, and his suffering was 
great. 

Gouverneur Morris had refused to lift a finger 
in his behalf. In fact, Morris seemed quite willing 
to lift a couple of fingers on the other side. 

Neither would Washington intercede. 

Monroe had not forgotten, nor was he ashamed. 
He interposed in behalf of Paine, got him out of 

354 



ADAMS AS PRESIDENT 

jail, took him to his own house, and there gave him 
shelter and protection. 

Impartial history reviewing this transaction 
will not make comparisons injurious to Monroe! 

Afterward came Jay's mission to England, his 
violation of the plain terms of his instructions, his 
treaty, which threw France over and which sac- 
rificed principle and honor in the interest of New 
England trade. Of course, the indignation of 
France was extreme. From her point of view, 
America had used her against Great Britain, and 
was now making a sacrifice of her to Great Britain. 

From the French point of view, was not the feel- 
ing of resentment natural? 

The British faction in Washington's Cabinet 
was no longer willing that James Monroe should be 
minister to France. His recall was sent, and C. C. 
Pinckney was named to succeed him. 

Now, the ill luck of John Adams was that he fell 
heir to this quarrel. 

The French Government, looking upon Monroe's 
recall as an unfriendly act, refused to receive 
Pinckney; but their refusal came too late to em- 
barrass Washington. It caught Adams at the 
threshold of his administration. 

During Washington's term Great Britain had 
heaped insults upon us; had made a bloody record 
along our northwestern frontier; had seized our 
merchantmen; had impressed our sailors. When 

355 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

the French minister, Fauehet, had returned to 
France, preparations for his capture had been 
made by the English in our own harbors. Even 
after the Jay treaty, British ships continued their 
depredations, seizing our vessels and our men. 
Washington had done nothing; Federalism was 
helpless to prevent or revenge the outrages. 

Besides, Hamilton was so bent upon that British 
alliance of his that nothing permanently angered 
him. 

Adams succeeded to all this — could not pos- 
sibly have escaped it, for it was upon him at the 
very moment he stepped into the presidency. 
Neither could he have escaped the French snarl. 
It was there already. Hamilton and Washington 
had made it; Adams was left to stagger under it. 

Badgered by France, baited by Jefferson's re- 
publicans, undermined by his own Cabinet, John 
Adams found the presidency to be what Jefferson 
had said it was, " a splendid misery " — the misery 
being much more apparent than the splendor. 

The whole nation rallied to the British faction 
when Talleyrand made the celebrated " X. Y. Z." 
attempt to extort tribute from the grand embassy 
which Adams had sent to negotiate for peace; and 
there was wild talk of a French invasion. Congress 
voted supplies, Washington was placed in com- 
mand of the army of defense, and preparations 
made on an extensive scale for war. 

356 



ADAMS AS PRESIDENT 

Here, again, there were mortifications for 
Adams. 

General Washington named Hamilton to rank 
next to himself in the new army; and, owing to 
Washington's age, this meant that Hamilton would 
be acting commander-in-chief. General Knox had 
ranked Hamilton in the old army, and he now 
claimed precedence. Adams sided with Knox. But 
Hamilton held the Cabinet in the hollow of his 
hand; and the Cabinet threw its full weight for 
Hamilton. Washington insisted that Hamilton 
must rank next to himself, and Adams had to give 
way. 

Another pill was yet more bitter. Washington 
had given an appointment in the new army to 
Smith, the son-in-law of the President; and Picker- 
ing, a member of Adams's Cabinet, opposed Smith's 
confirmation. Smith, it would seem, was a bank- 
rupt; and Pickering had heard that there were 
things which had been said against Smith's charac- 
ter. Thus the President's Cabinet councilor pre- 
vailed upon the Senate to reject the President's 
son-in-law, regardless of the Washington appoint- 
ment. 

It was certainly a very peculiar state of affairs, 
and Mr. Adams must have been most unhappy. 

Just before entering the office he had written to 
the partner of his bosom, the faithful Abigail, in 
this strain: " Although the moment is dangerous, I 

357 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

am not scared. Fear takes no hold on me; and 
makes no approaches to me." 

It was fortunate for Mr. Adams that fear 
avoided him so warily, for his position was pre- 
carious. 

The British, attentive as to the French menace 
and absent-minded as to the Jay treaty, ceased to 
draw the line of their aggressions at our battle- 
ships. An English squadron in the West Indies 
defied the convoy of a fleet of American merchant- 
men, seized some of the vessels, went on board the 
convoying sloop of war, the Baltimore, and took 
away half a dozen of the crew of our battle-ship, 
after having compelled fifty-five of our sailors to 
leave the Baltimore and go on board the British 
ships for inspection! 

Not being at all afraid, and having concentrated 
his anger upon France, Mr. Adams did not excite 
himself over the British outrage. Great Britain 
was not even hit with a proclamation.^ 

The exposure of Talleyrand's effort to extort a 
bribe from America embarrassed that infamous 
scoundrel very much in France; for, while bribery 
there was beginning to be the fashion, exposures 
were in disrepute. The principle that the sin con- 
sists mainly in being " caught at it," is so universal 

^ The President sent a circular letter to our naval officers instructing 
them to resist further attempts of the same kind. Great Britain "dis- 
avowed " the act, kept the sailors, continued to insult us, and to im- 
press our seamen. 

358 



ADAMS AS PRESIDENT 

that even Talleyrand, being fairly caught, had to 
take his punishment. He began to exert all his 
arts to draw the United States back into the atti- 
tude of seeking a treaty; and from hints he went to 
overtures, and from overtures advanced to explicit 
promises. 

An eccentric citizen of Philadelphia, Dr. Logan 
by name — a Quaker by descent — was moved at the 
time to go to France and untangle the threads 
which diplomacy had confused; and he straight- 
way journeyed to Paris. This, of course, was most 
irregular and reprehensible. The client must let 
his lawyer do all the talking; the physician re- 
lies upon his patient's docility; and diplomacy 
could never do business if plain citizens interfered. 

Unmindful of these precepts and examples, Dr, 
Logan took it upon himself to keep France and 
America from shedding each other's blood, A word 
of explanation might clear up what was evidently 
a misunderstanding — and so win a glorious victory 
for peace. 

When Dr. Logan appeared upon the scene in 
Paris, he had better credentials than President 
Adams could give him. He was able to show a let- 
ter of Thomas Jefferson's vouching for him as a 
worthy, respectable citizen. 

The name of Jefferson was something to conjure 
with in France; and Dr, Logan was given a distin- 
guished reception. That he was wined and dined, 

359 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

hugged and kissed, need not be stated; inference 
covers that; but, what is more important, he was 
taken into official confidence, and assured that 
France wished for nothing better than honorable 
peace with the United States. 

Very sweet things must the conscience and self- 
esteem of Dr. Logan have w^hispered to him as he 
hastened back to America to tell John Adams the 
result of his mission. 

Adams's satisfaction was greater than that of 
Washington — much more so. The commander-in- 
chief of the new army which was to fight France 
disapproved Dr. Logan's unwarranted conduct to- 
tally. He received the good doctor standing, and 
with that icy stare which froze the marrow of com- 
mon men. His words to the Quaker were few, and 
not genial. As to Hamilton and the British faction 
generally, their wrath was unbounded. They not 
only denounced the volunteer peacemaker, but had 
Congress to enact a law making it a crime for any 
American thereafter to do what Dr. Logan had 
done. Kather than have peace made in any other 
w^ay than the regular way, let war come and dis- 
cord rule forever! 

The truth is, that Hamilton did not want peace 
at all. He had fallen in with the schemes of the 
South American adventurer Miranda, and was 
deep into an intrigue with England whose purpose 
was a joint enterprise by Great Britain and the 

360 



ADAMS AS PRESIDENT 

United States against French and Spanish pos- 
sessions in America. Hamilton concealed this de- 
sign from Washington, and the great man died in 
ignorance of the duplicity of his friend. But Adams 
realized after a while that the French quarrel was 
mere capital to Hamilton, and he veered round. 

Having said that he would never send another 
mission to France, he sent one. Circumstances had 
altered the case; and he acted like a brave, true 
man in changing his mind. France invited to re- 
newal of overtures, three envoys were sent, and the 
war clouds rolled by — in spite of Hamilton. 



361 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 

JEFFERSON VICE-PRESIDENT 

During this period of madness, the Federalists 
took advantage of the opportunity to imitate Great 
Britain in another direction. William Pitt had in- 
augurated a reign of terror in England itself, 
crushing out all freedom of speech and of the press. 
Over life and liberty the Government exercised al- 
most despotic sway. The Federalists determined 
to enact and enforce similar laws here. There was 
too much liberty of the press, too much license of 
the tongue; republican ideas were a menace, and 
democratic demagogues must be put down. The 
outcome of this demand was the alien and sedition 
laws. Their essence was that foreigners could live 
here only at the President's pleasure, and that 
American citizens could not speak or write their 
political sentiments without incurring the dangers 
of fine and imprisonment. 

Had these famous enactments been able to 
maintain their ground, popular government would 
indeed have been at an end. That the purpose of 
the authors of this legislation was the complete 
overthrow of democracy was shown afterward by 

362 



JEFFERSON VICE-PRESIDENT 

the program which Hamilton mapped out. He 
advised that a large standing army be maintained, 
that the jurisdiction of the Federal courts be ex- 
tended, that aliens objectionable to the Govern- 
ment be sent away; that the President be given 
power to appoint peace officers in each county; that 
the States be divided into small judicial districts 
with a Federal judge in each, appointed by the 
President; and that large States be cut up into 
several divisions so that they might be more ef- 
fectually controlled by the General Government! 

Against the mighty efforts Federalism was 
making toward centralization, Jefferson and Mad- 
ison hurled the celebrated Kentucky and Virginia 
resolutions. Stripped of all verbal drapery, the 
doctrine set forth in these papers was that if Con- 
gress made laws which violated the compact be- 
tween the States such laws were not binding. 

They set forth the Jeffersonian creed, to wit, 
that the Union was the result of voluntary com- 
pact between free, independent States; that these 
States expressed in writing the powers they were 
granting to the General Government; and that this 
General Government was therefore one of limited 
powers — the limits being prescribed in the Consti- 
tution itself. For Congress to go beyond these lim- 
its was usurpation. 

It was during this period of excitement, when 
further encroachments upon the power of the 

363 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

States was feared, that Virginia, as John Randolph 
declared, built the great armory in Richmond in 
order that she might be ready to defend her rights. 

The opinion which Edmund Randolph gave 
Madison on this vexed question of nullification is 
very striking. 

Randolph conceded that there must necessarily 
be, somewhere within the nation, an ultimate 
sovereign power which could veto the usurpations 
of a lawless Congress. He argued that the people in 
each State (not the Legislatures) could declare an 
unconstitutional law null and void, and that when 
three-fourths of the States thus declared against 
Congress the Government would be overwhelmed. 

As Vice-President, Mr. Jefferson's position was 
comparatively happy. His duties were not arduous, 
and his responsibilities were light. To preside in 
the Senate, to prepare from his commonplace book 
a Manual of Parliamentary Practise; to keep a 
close watch on the movements of the Federalists, 
while with a judicious distribution of private let- 
ters he kept the republicans in line — these were the 
easy tasks of his period of waiting for John Adams 
to ground his vessel. 

The salary of his office was welcome; for ready 
cash was never too plentiful at Monticello, where 
farming was precarious and house-building chronic. 

364 



JEFFERSON VICE-PRESIDENT 

His household had now lost one of its treasures, 
for the beautiful Maria had married her cousin, 
John Eppes, and had gone to her new home of 
Edgehill. 

At the beginning of Mr. Adams's term, the Vice- 
President had made overtures to him, seeking to 
establish relations of cordiality and confidence. 
They had worked in harness together in the early 
stages of the American struggle, had been con- 
genial in Europe; and Mr. Jefferson, the most con- 
ciliatory of men, would have been glad to resume 
the old familiar intercourse. Mr. Adams was not 
averse to this, met Mr. Jefferson's advances cor- 
dially, and advised with him as to the sending of 
envoys to France. The President was inclined to 
make up a non-partizan embassy and to name Mr. 
Madison as one of the members. His Cabinet, how- 
ever, opposed him, threatened to resign, carried 
their point, and thus won their first triumph over 
their President. 

After this the relations between Mr. Adams and 
Mr. Jefferson were merely formal. As the policy 
of the administration developed itself, Mr. Jeffer- 
son's position as leader of an opposition was recog- 
nized. That he would be the rival candidate at the 
next election was realized by all parties. The sage 
of Monticello, scanning the horizon from his lofty 
outlook, noted the political weather as carefully as 
recorded rainfall, snow depth, and wind change. 

365 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Mr. Adams made no move which his wary rival did 
not see and study. The improved plow turned Vir- 
ginia sod, the new thrasher took the place of horse- 
hoofs and flails; the flowing pen marked the lines 
of political battle; and his correspondents through- 
out the land — the men who guided republican 
legions in each State — were patiently drilled in the 
art of separating political chaff from wheat. 

During all the heat of that presidential cam- 
paign Jefferson was cool and courageous. Not one 
ell did he depart from the even tenor of his way. 

He entertained as freely as ever, and not more 
so. He wrote as copiously as ever, not appreciably 
more so. He was as silent as ever under newspa- 
per attacks; and all the thunders of New England 
preachers could not keep him from going as usual 
to hear Priestley, the Unitarian, or could extort 
from him one word to negative the accusation that 
he was an infidel and the father of mulatto chil- 
dren. 

When Hamilton's friends called him an atheist 
in religion and a fanatic in politics he was silent; 
when he was accused of denying the divinity of 
Christ, he was silent. Only once did he ever no- 
tice men who abused him, and that was when he 
was charged with having embezzled the property 
of the widow and orphan. And his denial of even 
this foul statement was not written for newspa- 
pers. 

366 



JEFFERSON VICE-PRESIDENT 

Historians Henry Adams, Henry Cabot Lodge, 
Theodore Roosevelt, and other writers, who are 
modern outcroppings of the old Federalist vein, 
amuse one another by keeping alive the legend of 
Jefferson's " timidity and vacillation." Because he 
would not stoop to personal brawls, because he 
would not lower himself to have a newspaper con- 
troversy with Hamilton, he has been pictured as a 
coward who could be frightened from any position 
he took, and scared off from any route he proposed 
to travel. Political prejudice, partizan rancor, and 
intemperate abuse could not go much further than 
this in scouting facts. 

In his day, Mr. Jefferson combated a greater 
number of laws which were oppressive, customs 
which were stale, tendencies which were undemo- 
cratic, and fixed opinions which were popular than 
any other man in public life. He attacked systems 
and creeds where they were most sensitive. He 
aroused vested interests which were the most pow- 
erful, and which when alarmed are the most vin- 
dictive. Yet never once in all his long life did he 
falter, surrender, or apostatize. 

He took the unpopular side of slavery, and held 
to it. He defied the religious bigotry of his times, 
and continued to defy it. He challenged the or- 
ganized power of land monopoly and class rule in 
his own State and overthrew it. He dared to take 
issue with the great Washington himself, in the 

367 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

State where they both lived, and into the ears of 
the dying Washington rang the shouts of Jeffer- 
son's victory as Virginia swung away from Fed- 
eralism and marshaled her hosts for Jefferson and 
Democracy. 

Do cowards raise and ride such storms as 
these? 

Do men who are " weak and irresolute " plan 
such campaigns, and win such triumphs as these? 

One is not much surprised that Henry Adams 
should preserve in his books the hereditary hatred 
of the Adamses for Thomas Jefferson; but when 
Theodore Roosevelt, in his Winning of the West, 
refers to our great leaders as " politicians of the in- 
famous stripe of Thomas Jefferson and James Mad- 
ison," and alludes to Jefferson, time and again, 
as timid, weak, and vacillating, one is pained, dis- 
appointed, discouraged. 

Comparisons, if odious, are sometimes the only 
methods of measurement. 

It so happens that since Mr. Roosevelt's book 
was written he himself has assumed the role of a 
great reformer. In New York State he was given 
power and opportunity to effect reforms, to destroy 
the wicked, and to purify the political atmosphere. 
In his State of New York he had just the same 
chances to combat hoary wrongs as Jefferson en- 
joyed in Virginia. 

As President of the United States, also, Mr. 
368 



JEFFERSON VICE-PRESIDENT 

Roosevelt has had the widest field, the largest op- 
portunity, to show his courage and his ability. 

There was class greed to curb, as in Jefferson's 
day. 

Common humanity, sorely oppressed, called for 
a champion, as in Jefferson's day. 

The weak, trampled upon by the strong, cried 
aloud for mercy, as in Jefferson's day. 

Is Mr. Koosevelt a " politician of the infamous 
stripe "? 

By no means. 

Is he "weak, timid, vacillating"? 

Far from it. 

Then where are his trophies, such as Jefferson 
won? 

What battles has he fought for the people, such 
as Jefferson fought? What vested wrongs has he 
abolished, what abuses has he remedied, what evil 
laws has he repealed, what unjust system has he 
reformed, what victim of social and industrial 
tyranny has he freed? 

W'here has he confronted class despotism and, 
with battle-ax in hand, said, "Turn loose!"? 

Yes, comparisons are odious, 

Mr. Eoosevelt will be fortunate if, after his 
reign is over, posterity shall forget that he pil- 
loried Thomas Jefferson as " a politician of the in- 
famous stripe.'^ 

35 369 



CHAPTEK XXXIX 

DEFEAT FOR THE FEDERALISTS 

It would be difficult to name a period in which 
partizan rancor raged with greater violence. No- 
body escaped, and slander recognized no limits. 
George Washington was denounced as defaulter, a 
man who had debauched his country, the tool of 
Great l?ritain, and the du]H» of llaniiltDn; James 
Monroe was abused as a fool and a bribc^-takiu'; and 
Jefferson was assailed as an atheist, a robber of the 
widow and orphan, a father of mulatto children, an 
enemy to law, order, and property. As to Hamilton, 
it became necessary to proye that he ^yas not a cor- 
rupt Treasurer; and he did it by confessing a til thy, 
disgraceful amour with a married woman named 
Maria Rej'nolds. Maria's husband was a party to 
the intrigue, and Hamilton's own residence was 
often the place of assignation. 

This violence of political passion seems to have 
had its origin in the elay Treaty excitement. Kiot- 
ous crowds thronged the streets of Philadelphia, 
New York, and other large cities. Jay was burned 
in effigy, and TIamilton was stoned. Nothing but 
the unwearied efforts of the merchant class, the 

370 



DEFEAT FOR THE FEDERALISTS 

strength of Washington, and the alarm which 
friends of the Government began to feel for its very 
existence, ever turned the tide and rammed that 
odious treaty down the throats of the people. 



President Adams was inclined to take himself 
as seriously as Washington had done, and to affect 
an attitude of stateliness. In George Washington, 
form and ceremony and a pose of loftiness were 
more or less natural. People conceded all that to 
so great a man. Back of him, and whatever he 
might choose to do, was a record which said, '' It is 
my right." 

Therefore, when George Washington's cream- 
colored coach and his six magnificent horses 
pranced through the streets of Philadelphia, 
with liveried white servants, outriders, etc., 
nobody audibly lifted the voice of lamentation. 
George Washington and " Lady Washington " 
were unique, a law unto themselves, a noble pair 
at whom " filthy Democrats " must not rail — except 
in newspapers, private letters, and low-voiced con- 
versation. 

But when John Adams essayed to bend this 
particular bow of Ulysses, the effect was not happy. 
In his way, John Adams was a worthy man, but he 
was not George Washington. And IMrs. Abigail 
Adams was a most estimable wife, mother, neigh- 

371 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

bor, friend, and Christian — but Mrs. Abigail was 
not " Lady Wastiington." 

Therefore, at the very beginning of his adminis- 
tration President Adams collided with the Demo- 
cratic spirit which Washington had only felt at the 
close of his. Andrew Jackson had stood against 
the congressional vote of confidence in Washing- 
ton; and Matthew Lyon now began a rebellion 
against the forms and ceremonials which Washing- 
ton had established, and which Adams wished to 
continue. 

Congress was Federalist, the fashions of the 
time were Federalist, and Lyon was Democratic. 
Batteries of ridicule and abuse were opened upon 
him, as is the case always. Lyon was not a scholar, 
but he was far from being either fool or vul- 
garian. 

His father had lost his life resisting British 
tyranny in Ireland, and Matthew Lyon, at the age 
of fifteen, had fled to this country for refuge. He 
had received some schooling in Ireland, and he 
seems to have continued his education in this coun- 
try. Marrying a niece of Ethan Allen, he settled 
in Vermont, in 1774. 

His natural position, as an Irishman, was with 
the colonists in their rebellion; and he was one of 
the Green Mountain boys, who under Ethan Allen, 
made the capture of Ticonderoga. He continued to 
serve during the war and distinguished himself. 

372 



DEFEAT FOR THE FEDERALISTS 

He was promoted from grade to grade until he be- 
came colonel; and after the war he was a leading 
man in Vermont, both in business and politics. 
His first wife dying, he married the daughter of 
Governor Thomas Chittenden. Serving constantly 
in the Legislature, he held high positions in the 
State administration, such as Secretary of the 
Board of War and Deputy Secretary of the Council. 
He founded the town of Fair Haven, and estab- 
lished manufactories on Poultney River. He 
erected a paper-mill, a printing-press, corn-mills, 
sawmills, and ironworks. He was one of the first 
to make paper from the bark of the basswood-tree. 
Under his practical touch this rural wilderness 
which he had settled became one of the most flour- 
ishing business centers in New England. 

From the bark of the forest tree the ingenious 
Irishman made paper, and upon this paper of his 
own make he printed the " Farmer's Library," a 
small journal edited by himself and his son James 
— who also set the type. He also published books 
at New Haven, one of these being a Life of Ben- 
jamin Franklin. In a section where Federalism 
was entrenched, Lyon made the fight for Democracy. 
He met with all kinds of obstacles. Other papers 
would not publish his articles. To get a hearing he 
was compelled to run a paper of his own. Defeated 
time and again for Congress, he at length won the 
seat, and so it was that Matthew Lyon become a 

373 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

thorn in the flesh to John Adams, and to Federal- 
ism generally. 

When he asked to be excused from the childish 
l^ageantry of parading through the streets to at- 
tend upon the President, he was laughed at, and the 
excuse contemptuously granted. But when he per- 
sisted in his attitude, again sought exemption from 
the procession, and Congress realized that public 
approval was about to give its support to Lyon, 
angry debate took the place of ridicule. 

From this time on he was made the butt for 
Federalist sarcasm and abuse. Old slanders, of the 
local envy type, were raked up and circulated. The 
soldier of Ticonderoga, Bennington, and Saratoga 
was accused of being a coward. A young member 
named Griswold v^^as put forward to publicly insult 
the offensive Irishman. He did so, and Lyon spat 
in his face. 

Later, Griswold armed himself with a big stick, 
came to Lyon's desk in the House, just after 
prayers, and, while Lyon was looking down at some 
papers, struck him over the head, raining blow after 
blow upon him. Lyon, struggling from amid seats 
and desks, sought to close in with Griswold, but 
could not. Snatching up the tongs from the 
nearest fireplace, he struck his assailant with them, 
and at this turn in the combat the Speaker of the 
House regained his parliamentary habit and lustily 
called for " Order." 

374 



DEFEAT FOR THE FEDERALISTS 

Griswold caught the tongs, Lyon the stick, and 
down they went on the floor, Lyon underneath. 
Members rushed up, Griswold's legs were gripped, 
and he was pulled off, Lyon fighting all the time, 
and expressing regrets that they had not been al- 
lowed to fight it out. Griswold had not been hurt; 
Lyon was bruised and bloody. 

And the Federalist party gathered all its 
strength to expel from the House — Griswold? 

No! Lyon and Griswold. 

Bitter, acrimonious debates followed, the ques- 
tion being made a party issue, but Lyon held his 
seat. Griswold was not even censured. Then 
Adams determined to crush him with the power of 
the Federal judiciary. He was arrested, tried and 
convicted under the sedition law for an alleged libel 
which would now pass any presidential target with- 
out scoring a hit. Lyon had accused Adams of 
avarice, vanity, and childish love of pomp. The 
Federal judge w^as so shocked at this language that 
he threw Lyon into jail and fined him one thousand 
dollars. 

The prisoner was reelected to Congress while he 
lay in jail. After the expiration of his four months' 
sentence, he would still have remained in custody 
had not political and personal friends taken up a 
collection to pay the fine. Apollos Austin, of Ver- 
mont, gathered contributions in silver and took 
them South; but General Stevens Thompson 

375 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Mason, of Loudoun County, Virginia, had ridden 
North, his saddle-bags stuffed with gold; and it was 
Mason who paid the fine. From his cell, the uncon- 
querable Lyon, who had refused to ask Adams for 
clemency, went back in triumph to Congress. The 
very schoolhouses poured forth their children to 
swell the ovation which welcomed the valiant Dem- 
ocrat to liberty. 

Bayard, of Delaware, renewed the effort to expel 
Lyon from Congress, but failed. 

Under the alien and sedition laws many oth- 
ers besides Lyon were persecuted and punished. 
Frightened foreigners, most of whom were French 
refugees, fled in terror to the ships, and put to 
sea. Federal judges became hot partizans, and 
stump speeches volleyed and thundered from the 
bench. 

The Father of his Country mentally laid the 
Farewell Address upon the table, and made his 
way into the thickest of the party warfare. All of 
his influence was exerted to bring Patrick Henry 
over to the Federal side, and the final flash of the 
sun of this great orator, who was far gone into the 
evening of life, was in behalf of the party of the 
alien and sedition laws. Washington himself rode 
ten miles to vote. 

It is a mournful fact that the last outburst of 
Washington's temper was aroused by the mention 
of the name of James Monroe, whose only sin was 

376 



DEFEAT FOR THE FEDERALISTS 

that he could not hate the French as Hamilton 
hated them. 

In New York the struggle was one of life and 
death between the factions of Schuyler-Hamilton 
and Clinton-Burr. The Republicans won. In his 
rage, Hamilton proposed to Governor Jay to recall 
the Legislature, which had adjourned sine die, and 
to so change the State laws as to set aside the elec- 
tion just held. John Jay was British, aristocratic, 
and partizan, but he was honest, and he scornfully 
refused to do Hamilton's dirty work. 



President Adams at length decided to have a 
Cabinet he could control. He asked Pickering to re- 
sign. Timothy said he was poor and needed the 
salary, therefore he could not resign. Adams 
doubtless remembered son-in-law Smith, whom 
Pickering had opposed on the score of his poverty, 
and he dismissed Timothy summarily. McHenry, 
Secretary of War, he also forced to resign. To fill 
these vacancies, John Marshall was appointed 
Secretary of State and Samuel Dexter Secretary of 
War. Oliver Wolcott, the most arrant knave of 
that era, was able to hoodwink Mr. Adams com- 
pletely, and his resignation was handed in at his 
own time and on his own terms. He had acted as 
British spy in Washington's Cabinet, concerting 
with Hammond the plot which destroyed Randolph, 

377 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

and he now acted as Hamilton's spy in Adams's 
Cabinet, betraying the secrets and pkitting the 
ruin of his chief. For Hamilton, furious because 
of the peace with France and the miscarriage 
of the Miranda scheme, determined to destroy 
Adams. From Wolcott he secured all the inside 
facts which that traitor could give, and Adams's 
confidential adviser actually helped to prepare, and 
did revise, the secret pamphlet which Avas meant to 
transfer Federalist votes from Adams, presidential 
candidate, to Pinckney, the vice-presidential can- 
didate. Should the people give a majority vote to 
the Federalist ticket, Hamilton's scheme was to put 
into the presidency a man who had not been chosen 
for that office, and to degrade the man who had. 
Those people who berate Aaron Burr for not having 
shown more activity in working for Jefferson when 
there was a tie vote between them should not over- 
look the contemporary standard of New York 
morality. Hamilton, Clinton, Burr— there wasn't 
a trick in the game which either of these political 
gamblers would not use to win the stakes. Hamil- 
ton had intended his stab at John Adams to be 
secret, but Aaron Burr also knew how to employ 
spies. Wolcott was Hamilton's spy on Adams, and 
some equally trusted traitor was Burr's spy on 
Hamilton, The pamphlet was no sooner printed 
than Burr had a copy, and was using it with ter- 
rible effect. The Republicans it warned, encour- 

378 



DEFEAT FOR THE FEDERALISTS 

aged, solidified; the Federalists it dismayed, di- 
vided, overwhelmed with confusion. 

After the fiercest combat ever known, Jefferson 
and Burr were elected — the result being largely due 
to Burr's splendid victory over Hamilton in New 
York. 

IMr. Jefferson has said that the Federalists, 
routed at the polls, retreated into the judiciary. 

This is true. Mr. Adams and his party knew 
where their haven, their fortress was, and they ran 
into it. Congress increased the judgeships, estab- 
lishing circuits with three judges each, besides at- 
torneys, clerks, and marshals. These posts were 
hurriedly filled with stalwart partizans. President 
Adams kept on filling up the offices with Federal- 
ists till nine o'clock of the last night of his term. 
The whole administration was made a deep, solid 
political color. No Republican spot, stripe, or trim- 
ming appeared anywhere to relieve the dull monot- 
ony of Federalism. 

John Marshall, already Secretary of State, was 
given an additional office. He was appointed Chief 
Justice, a place from which he was to fulminate 
rank Federalism with authoritative voice for more 
than a generation. 

The time being short and the object worthy, Mr. 
Adams continued to sign commissions, and John 
Marshall, by candle-light, continued to countersign. 
At midnight, so the story goes, Levi Lincoln stepped 

379 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

into the room, drew Jefferson's watch upon the in- 
dustrious Marshall, and made him stop. 

One of the least happy of men must have been 
President John Adams! His administration con- 
demned, his party dead, his Secretary watched and 
arrested like a thief in the night, his plight was 
lamentable. 

It had been bad enough for him at his inaugura- 
tion that the shouts should be for George Washing- 
ton — not for John Adams; it would be infinitely 
worse now at his rival's inauguration, when the 
shouting would be for Thomas Jefferson. 

Who would cheer for John Adams? 

Not the Kepublicans, for they hated him; not 
the Federalists, for they loved him no more. 

Hamilton had denounced him, and the very men 
who had slain the Federalist party accused Adams 
of the crime. 

Why remain and face the humiliations of inau- 
guration day? Why not order the carriage for an 
early hour and slip away from John Randolph's 
" vast and desolate city " before the crowds were 
churning the mud? In short, was it not time for 
John Adams to go? 

Home — home to Quincy and to Mistress Abi- 
gail. Not that he was scared, for fear made no ap- 
proaches to him; but because he was not feeling 
well, because his heart was sore and his temper 
sour and his mind droopy; and because shame, 

380 



DEFEAT FOR THE FEDERALISTS 

envy, jealousy, rage, and disappointment were tear- 
ing him like evil spirits, he would order his horses 
for the very early morning and give an exhibi- 
tion of petty spite and childish petulance, for a 
similar display of which the naughty urchin would 
be punitively spanked. 



381 



CHAPTER XL 

THE JEFFERSON AND BURR CONTEST 

Under the old system of conducting presiden- 
tial elections, that candidate who received the 
highest number of votes became President, the 
next Vice-President. 

Mr. Jefferson in 179G had not been a candidate 
for the second place; nobody had voted for him to 
be Vice-President; yet he took the vice-presidency, 
because that was the law. He and John Adams had 
each striven for the presidency, while other candi- 
dates contested the second place. Yet neither of 
the candidates whom the people had voted for as 
Vice-President was allowed to serve. 

Such was the law, and it should be remembered 
in gaging the moral guilt of Aaron Burr. 

Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr in the cam- 
paign of 1800 received 73 votes each; John Adams, 
on the opposition ticket, had 05. 

Thus the election was thrown into the House, 
and the law plainly directed that a President should 
be chosen by the House from the candidates who 
had received the highest number of votes. Appar- 
ently the makers of the Constitution intended to 

382 



JEFFERSON AND BURR CONTEST 

vest the House with some discretion. The area of 
this discretion was limited, but it was there. Henry 
Clay and John Quincy Adams acted upon this idea 
when they afterward combined to defeat the will of 
the people, and to oust the majority candidate, 
Andrew Jackson. 

They were punished politically for this combi- 
nation, but history has not placed Clay and Adams 
in her Rogues' Gallery. 

Now in 1800 the custom as to presidential elec- 
tions was not settled. By law, the electoral col- 
leges were vested with the power of choosing for 
President and Vice-President men whose names 
had not been before the people at all. The Hamil- 
tonian anti-Democratic plan gave them this power 
for the express purpose of depriving ^'the great 
beast " of the right to choose its rulers. Only by 
the irresistible force of popular sentiment have the 
electors been made the mere registers of the will of 
the people. 

In 1800 the ideas controlling the case were so 
vague that nobody claimed the election of Jefferson 
to the first place, and Burr to the second. 

Ballots did not specify for which place the 
presidential candidate had contested. Therefore 
the Republican ticket of 1800 was simply Jefferson 
and Burr — represented by 73 votes in the electoral 
college. 

These two names being the highest, the law re- 
383 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

quired that they should both go before the House 
to be voted for as candidates for the presidency. 

Now, then, what ought Burr to have done? 

His party had not intended him for the presi- 
dency — no voter had so intended. Should he take 
the office by operation of law? If Congress chose 
to exercise its discretion and make him the Presi- 
dent, should he accept? 

That is the case, and the whole case. Jefferson 
had taken the office of Vice-President by operation 
of law, excluding the candidate who had been 
chosen by the people for that lower place. Should 
the rule work both ways? 

A man of the nicest honor like John Jay or 
James Madison would not have hesitated. He 
would have spurned even the appearance of evil, 
would not have allowed his name used to defeat the 
will of the people, would not have allowed political 
enemies in Congress to thrust upon him an office 
which political friends had not intended to give. 
When Federalism resorted to strategy to divide and 
conquer the Republicans by elevating Burr over 
Jefferson, the simplest dictates of honor required 
that Burr should stand by his friends and help to 
defeat the plots of the enemy. 

That he did not do so was his unpardonable sin 
— unforgiven by his party and by the historian. 

He did not actively aid the Federalists. He 
stayed at Albany, where his daughter was about to 

384 



JEFFERSON AND BURR CONTEST 

marry, and where legislative duties engaged him. 
He wrote a letter repudiating the plot of the Fed- 
eralists and declining to give aid to the intrigue. 

He may have meant that Federalism should con- 
sider him a Barkis who was willing, but there is no 
proof that he went further than that. 

As to Hamilton, the record is positively pain- 
ful. To see a really great man degrade himself to 
gratify a personal spleen is never an inspiring 
sight. 

During the previous campaign, Hamilton had 
exerted himself in a most treacherous, unscrupu- 
lous manner to have Pinckney, the vice-presiden- 
tial candidate on the Federalist ticket, come in 
ahead of John Adams. 

Now that Federalism was snowed under, he set 
himself to sow discord between Jefferson and Burr. 

He w^rote to that wily knave Oliver Wolcott a 
letter which is surely one of the meanest extant. 
After denouncing Burr for being bankrupt, Hamil- 
ton, who was himself insolvent, says in reference to 
Burr's supposed ambition to be President: "Yet 
it may be well to throw out a lure for him, in 
order to tempt him to start for the place, and 
then lay the foundation of disunion between the two 
chiefs." So it would seem that Burr needed tempt- 
ing, required a lure, and the Federalists were to lay 
the net in order to bring about strife between Jef- 
ferson and Burr. 

26 385 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

When it is borne in mind that it was the polit- 
ical strategy of the Federalists to play off one of 
these Republican chiefs against the other, and the 
only pretense of evidence we have against Burr as 
to his conduct at this time comes from Federalist 
sources, the whole case assumes a new^ aspect. 

Had Burr been willing to go to Washington and 
canvass for the presidency, had he made the pledges 
which the Bayards of Federalism demanded, and 
which Jefferson's friends (unknown to Jefferson) 
did make, there can be no doubt that he would have 
been President of the United States. It only needed 
that he should crook his finger in the way of active 
self-help. 

And had Aaron Burr become President who can 
say that he would not have made a good one — as 
good as li. B. Hayes, for example? 

There were turns in the tide of national fortunes 
during the next few years when his indomitable 
courage, his fertility of resource, his decision of 
character, his address and firmness, might have 
been infinitely valuable to his country. Let us deal 
justly with this man. His nature had in it the seeds 
of good and of evil, and when his fortunes became 
desperate he soured on a world which he thought 
had been too hard on him, and the evil of his nature 
developed. It made him a criminal, an outlaw, an 
Ishmaelite. 

But who is so very wise as to know that, had 
386 



JEFFERSON AND BURR CONTEST 

success continued to reward his ambition, he would 
not have identified that ambition with the best in- 
terests of his native land? 

Burr's ability was conceded. He had been a 
brilliant soldier. As New York's Attorney-General 
and as United States Senator his record was so good 
that his name had been voted for in the electoral 
colleges twice before this. By sheer force of will 
and intellect he had wrested New York from the 
Hamilton-Schuyler faction, in defiance of the 
money power and the ultra-British aristocracy. It 
was believed that his morals were loose, but there 
had been no sickening Maria Reynolds exposures 
about him, and his family relations were as beauti- 
ful as those of Jefferson himself. 

It was thought that he was politically tricky, 
but nobody had accused him of betraying his own 
party. His tricks were weapons aimed at the oppo- 
sition, and they were popular with the Republicans, 
for they had gained New York. He had never 
knifed a friend, as Hamilton and Wolcott stabbed 
John Adams. He had not tried to cut the ground 
from under the feet of his chief, as Hamilton had 
done in the recent campaign. He was a hard 
fighter, a fertile schemer, a selfish oflfice-hunter, a 
man whose opinion of human nature was low. In 
other words, he was the earliest specimen of what 
afterward became recognized as a distinct type — 
he was a ISlew York politician. 

387 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

He founded Tammany, and set it going upon its 
mission — heavenward or hellward, according to the 
point of view. Health and recreation were not his 
political objects. Patriotism and principles were 
not supposed to be disturbers of his slumbers. 
Politics was a game, its stakes the spoils of office. 
The loser got out; the winner got in. Against one's 
adversary all w^as fair — for it was war. Hard blows 
were to be given and taken, mines to be sprung and 
counter-mines detected; nets to be laid and snares 
avoided. 

This was New York politics, mildly drawn, and 
the record shows that Burr was no whit worse than 
the average. 

So immoral had become the tone that Alexander 
Hamilton, wishing to shirk the French treaty of 
1778, had argued to Washington that the change 
of government in France had annulled the contract, 
and wishing to set aside the presidential candidate 
already virtually chosen by the people of New York, 
had applied to Governor Jay to reconvene the old 
Federalist Legislature in extra session, so that a 
new election by districts could be ordered and the 
will of the people defeated. So far had the feet of 
reputable statesmen wandered from the path of 
common rectitude that Hamilton paid the husband 
of his paramour almost as regularly as he paid his 
cook, used Wolcott as a spy upon Adams, and en- 
tered upon a secret league with Miranda to draw 

388 



JEFFERSON AND BURR CONTEST 

Washington and the United States army into wild 
expeditions of conquest. 

In the Student's History of the United States, 
the learned author (who makes a profession of 
history at Harvard) alludes to Aaron Burr as " a 
disreputable politician who had been nominated 
for the vice-presidency because he controlled the 
votes of New York." It is a great pity that Ameri- 
can students should be taught history in any such 
ramshackle style as that. Professor Channing 
ought to know that at the time Burr was nominated 
with Jefferson he was no more of a " disreputable 
politician " than Jefferson himself. Burr's stand- 
ing in the republic was absolutely as good as 
Jefferson's, and his elevation to that high office was 
less dreaded by the opposition than that of Jeffer- 
son. 

As proof of this, examine the letters and wri- 
tings of one of the purest and ablest of contempo- 
rary Americans — Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. 
The words of such a witness ought to be conclusive, 
for he had every opportunity to know the men and 
the circumstances, he was impartial as between 
Burr and Jefferson, and there was no possible mo- 
tive for misstatement. Charles Carroll, of Carroll- 
ton, had long known both Jefferson and Burr, he 
had signed the Declaration with Jefferson, and had 
continuously served in the highest places with 
conspicuous patriotism and ability. With a " dis- 

389 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

reputable politician " it is simply incredible that 
he should have had any sympathy. If ever there 
was a purist in politics and religion it was this 
old Roman of Maryland. There was no higher 
type of citizen anywhere. Reputed to be the 
richest man in America, he had studied and 
traveled abroad, knew the leading men of Europe 
almost as well as he did those of America, and his 
record as a patriot, a Christian, a statesman proud 
of his country and anxious for its future, renders it 
impossible for him to have been willing to see " a 
disreputable politician " President of the United 
States. 

Yet in a letter to Alexander Hamilton, dated 
August 27, 1800, Mr. Carroll states his preference 
for Burr over Jefferson, placing it upon Burr's de- 
cision of character. 

Again, in February, 1801, Mr. Carroll writes to 
his son, " I hope Burr will be chosen by the House 
of Representatives." 

Farther on, in the same letter, this stanch 
Federalist gives it as his opinion that Mr. Jefferson 
is unfit to govern this or any other country. 

" Burr, I suspect, is not less a hypocrite than 
Jefferson, but he is a firm, steady man, and pos- 
sessed, it is said, of great energy and decision." 

Here we have Burr's reputation given by a con- 
temporary. Shrewd Mr. Carroll suspects that Burr 
may be as hypocritical as Jefferson, but the reputa- 

390 



JEFFERSON AND BURR CONTEST 

tio)i which Burr has made convinces the Maryland 
statesman that Burr is " firm, steady, decisive, and 
energetic." This is the testimony of a political 
enemy to both candidates, given in confidence to a 
son at the time the two eanilidates arc heforc the people. 

Is not this evidence more convincing as to how 
Burr stood in 1800 than the mere word of a Har- 
vard professor a century afterward? Later on, 
during the great fight in New York, when Hamil- 
ton, the Federalist, joined forces with the Demo- 
cratic factions of Clinton and Livingston to destroy 
Burr, Mr. Carroll disapproved the course of his 
friend Hamilton. He was evidently of the opinion 
that Hamilton, blinded by personal hatred to Burr, 
was losing a great political opportunity. The re- 
sults vindicated Mr. Carroll's foresight. Hamilton 
gratified his spleen but lost his party and his life. 

If history be worth writing at all, it ought to be 
written right — with a scorn for false precedent, 
and a fearless determination to find out the truth — - 
and then tell it. To jog along repenting statements 
which owe their authority only to repetition is 
slovenly, a wrong to the dead as well as to the 
living and the unborn. 

The present writer is no partizan of Aaron Burr, 
and is making in his behalf no special plea, but the 
author who says that Burr's standing as a man, a 
lawyer, and a politician was bad in the year 1800 
simply shuts his eyes to facts. 

391 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Turn to the opiuion of Gouvernenr Morris, 
Senator from 2s'ew York, a Federalist who knew all 
about both Jefferson and Burr. In a letter to Ham- 
ilton, Jan. 26, 1801, Morris states that the Federal- 
ists after full consideration are inclined to support 
Burr in preference to Jefferson. Why? Because, 
as Bayard, of Delaware, afterward stated on the 
floor of the House, thev considered Burr the best 
man of the two. 

They belieyed Jefferson to be " infected with all 
the cold-blooded yices," and to be full of " danger- 
ous principles." They looked " with abhorrence at 
a Chief Magistrate of America who shall be a slaye 
to Virginia." 

As to Burr, they consider him " as equal in 
worth to Jefferson, or equally yoid of it." The 
difference between the two is that Burr's " defects 
do not arise from want of energy or yigor." 

They belieye that " to courage Burr adds gener- 
osity," and that he " can not be branded with the 
charge of ingratitude." 

Thus we haye the testimony of two of the most 
prominent Federalists in America. No two men 
stood higher than Carroll and Morris, and what 
they say in confidence and without motiye for mis- 
statement is as conyincing as it is possible for 
human eyidence to be. Take what they assert as 
true, and Dr. Channing is wrong. His " disrep- 
utable politician " comes in at a much later date. 

392 



JEFFERSOX AXD BURR CONTEST 

.Ml'. Morris and Mr. Carroll viewed Burr as 
a political enemv. How was he regarded by his 
political friends? Thomas JeiTerson should be an 
authority on that side, and his testimony' given at 
the time is precisely in line with that of Mr. Carroll 
and Senator Morris. 

In a letter to Burr, dated Dec. 15, 1800, while 
congratulating the brilliant New Yorker on his 
election as Vice-President, Jefferson expresses a re- 
gret that he, Jefferson, will not have the benefit of 
Burr's services in his administration — evidently 
meaning the Cabinet. " I had endeavored to com- 
pose an administration whose talents, integrity, 
names, and dispositions should inspire unbounded 
confidence in the public mind, etc. I lose you from 
the list, etc." 

Mr. Jefferson classes Burr among those men of 
integrity who inspired unbounded confidence in the 
public mind, and with whom he had expected to 
compose his Cabinet. 

And there is nothing in Jefferson's writings, 
written at this time or previous to this time, which 
is in contradiction to what he wrote Burr. 



393 



CHAPTER XLI 

JEFB'ERSON PRESIDENT 

Remaining at Albany, and contenting himself 
with a refusal to help the conspirators at Washing- 
ton, Burr did nothing to defeat them. This atti- 
tude appeared to give Mr. Jefferson satisfaction at 
the time, for he wrote to his daughter that the Fed- 
eralists had not been able to make a tool of Burr, 
and that the conduct of that gentleman had been 
honorable throughout. 

As day after day passed in the House, and no 
election resulted, excitement rose higher and higher 
throughout the country. It was the middle of Feb- 
ruary. If by March 4th there should have been no 
choice of President, regular government would be 
at an end. There was no hold-over machinery which 
could be relied upon. A new convention of States 
would have to be called, perhaps, and this new con- 
vention might make various changes which numer- 
ous people did not desire. For instance, the South 
might lose the Federal capital, and Delaware might 
lose her statehood. Evidently it was to the interest 
of all parties that Federalism should not defy the 
country. 

394 



JEFFERSON PRESIDENT 

Hotheads began to talk of fighting, and in one 
or two places preparations of a warlike character 
were made. Threats were heard that no Federalist 
should have the presidency, and that Thomas Jef- 
ferson should be seated. 

If Burr had been chosen there would have been 
no revolt; Mr. Jefferson says this himself. But the 
Federalists could no more extract a pledge from 
him than from Jefferson. 

At this crisis three factors entered the prob- 
lem and influenced the Federalists to obey the peo- 
ple, and prefer Jefferson. 

One was the fear of the South as to the capital; 
another was the fear of Delaware that Pennsyl- 
vania would absorb her; and the third was the fear 
of Alexander Hamilton that Burr's elevation would 
mean his own extinction. 

A student of the situation will be impressed 
with the fact that, independent of Hamilton, the 
other two considerations would have compelled the 
choice of Jefferson. 

With Hamilton the least of his motives was pa- 
triotic. His opinion of Jefferson was as bad a one 
as one man could have of another. But Jefferson 
did not live in New York; Burr did, and that fact 
made a world of difference. It was simply intoler- 
able to Hamilton to have his detested local rival 
elected to the presidency, and he exerted what in- 
fluence he could to have Jefferson chosen. 

395 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

What that influence was is not so clear. 

Vermont, Delaware, and Maryland were the 
pivotal States, and it is not certain that Hamilton 
controlled either. The vote of any one of these 
would be enough to elect Jefferson. Pugnacious 
and incorruptible Matthew Lyon was one of the 
Representatives from Vermont, and the nephew of 
Gouverneur Morris was the other. Gouverneur 
Morris was Senator from New York, and had his 
own jealousy and dislike of Burr, his own independ- 
ent and honorable belief that the choice of the peo- 
ple should be respected by Congress, and favored 
Jefferson from the first. That his nephew absented 
himself and allowed Lyon to cast the whole vote of 
Vermont for Jefferson was probably due to the in- 
fluence of the rich, adroit, powerful New York Sen- 
ator, Gouverneur Morris. 

Maryland cast a blank ballot at the final vote, 
and who knows that Hamilton's influence caused 
her to do it? The fear of losing the capital had in- 
tensely excited Baltimore, and local influences of 
the strongest kind had been brought to bear. But 
when she ceased to vote against Jefferson, he no 
longer needed her support. 

As to Bayard, of Delaware, he was the Mephis- 
topheles of the whole episode. He extended his 
open palms in both directions, seeking gifts. Burr 
could have bought the presidency through Bayard. 
Jefferson could have arranged a deal through Bay- 

396 



JEFFERSON PRESIDENT 

ard. Neither would trade with him. Yet he voted 
for Burr thirty -five times and not once for Jeffer- 
son! On the final ballot, when his vote did not 
affect the result, he voted a blank piece of paper. 
In 1802 he explained his vote on the floor of Con- 
gress by saying that in voting for Aaron Burr he 
was supporting " the one whom he thought the 
greater and better man." Yet scholarly Henry 
Cabot Lodge and voluminous historian Hildreth 
allege that Thomas Jefferson owed his election to 
Bayard. 

Evidence of this Federalist's purity is furnished 
in a letter of his to Hamilton (1801), in which he ex- 
presses contempt for Burr because of his failure to 
" deceive one blockhead and buy two corruption- 
ists." It was the vote of Matthew Lyon, throwing 
Vermont to Mr. Jefferson, which ended the long 
contest, and the fact that Lyon would so vote was 
never doubtful. The decisive thing to do was to get 
Lewis R. Morris, his colleague, out of the way, so 
that Lyon could cast the whole vote, and there is no 
evidence that either Bayard or Hamilton controlled 
Lewis R. Morris, 



A new era had now opened. Mr. Jefferson came 
into his high office, not as one candidate usually fol- 
lows another, but as a reformer chosen to make 
great changes. His campaign had been a protest 

397 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

against a radically opposing creed, a revolt against 
what he considered a subversion of great prin- 
ciples. 

Under Washington and Adams, monarchy in dis- 
guise had entered the citadel. It must be driven 
out. The people had chosen him to do the work. It 
was his mission. The temple must be purified and 
rededicated to true principles upon which the peo- 
ple had intended to plant themselves when they 
were struggling to throw off the English yoke. 

Misled by the baleful influence of the British 
faction, Washington and Adams had gone far 
astray from the path, had grieved the spirit of De- 
mocracy. 

It had been his to sound the warning, to arouse 
the people to lead them to victory. The Govern- 
ment must be put back in the right road. The old 
landmarks must be recovered, the true doctrine 
preached and practised. In this spirit of consecra- 
tion to a high mission, Mr. JelTerson entered upon 
his duties. 

No cream-colored chariot and prancing horses, 
with outriders and livery, bore him to the Capitol to 
take the oath. He walked from his boarding-house, 
attended informally by a few friends, and read in a 
low voice the beautiful address which will always 
be to good government what the Sermon on the 
Mount is to religion. 

Great changes were made at once in all matters 
398 



JEFFERSON PRESIDENT 

of form and ceremony. Semi-royal levees were dis- 
continued. Dinner-parties given by the President 
were as informal as those of any private gentleman. 
Congress ceased to wait upon the President in a 
body, and the President ceased to come in state to 
Congress to deliver his " king's speech." 

When Jefferson had occasion to go to the Capitol 
upon any matter of business he rode horseback, 
hitched his horse to a peg under the shed which 
stood near, and walked in as any plain citizen 
w^ould have done. It was probably this habit 
(it angered and disgusted the Federalists so much) 
which gave currency to the rumor that he rode to 
his inauguration on a brood-mare, followed by a 
suckling colt. The writer is personally acquainted 
with good citizens who seem to consider the legend- 
ary brood-mare and her mythical colt as a part of 
the stage property of modern democracy. 

The Government had only recently moved into 
its new home (1800), and Washington city was at 
this time almost a wilderness. The White House 
was unfinished, and Jefferson had no lady of his 
family living with him; consequently it became the 
easier for him to indulge his preference for the in- 
formal style, both in matters of dress and of 
etiquette. His garb was frequently a mingling of 
several different fashions, none of them elegant, and 
his slipshod appearance gave pain to many very 
worthy people. An international complication was 

399 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

threatened because he received the British min- 
ister in slippers and undress. In avoiding one 
extreme, Mr. Jefferson was guilty of another. He 
at first went too far in his disregard of forms 
and of apparel. He adopted no laws of precedence, 
and went by the miller's rule of " First come, 
first served." Almost anybody could go to the 
mansion at pretty much any time and be graciously 
welcomed. A more promiscuous multitude than 
that which often paid its hearty respects to the 
President could not have been raked together. In 
theory, the White House belonged to all, and the 
practise, for once, rubbed noses with theory. 

Even at state dinners there was no law of prece- 
dence. If Jefferson happened to be seated next to 
Mrs. Madison when dinner was announced it was 
to Mrs. Madison that he would offer his arm, no 
matter who else might be in the room. If the wife 
of the British minister were present, her husband 
had to be alert and strenuous, else she would not 
find one of the best seats at the table. Such a state 
of affairs was horrible to the British minister, and 
he wrote indignant letters of complaint to his Gov- 
ernment. 

It is barely possible that Mr. Jefferson bore in 
mind the time when he had been given the cold 
shoulder in London, and that he definitely preferred 
Mrs. Madison to Mrs. Merry. At any rate, the 
British minister got precisely the same treatment 

400 



JEFFERSON PRESIDENT 

as others, and his efforts to secure better terms 
failed. 

We think Mr. Jefferson made a mistake in all 
this, for he wounded pride, hurt feelings, and ac- 
complished no good. But when Mr. William Eleroy 
Curtis finds the origin of the War of 1812 in Mr. 
Jefferson's behavior to the British minister, he be- 
comes a source of amusement. Two Italian states 
once went to war about an old well-bucket, and ten 
thousand lives were lost in the debate; a coarse 
joke flung at Henry II of England by the King 
of France, and a contemptuous reference by 
Frederick of Prussia to Madame de Pompadour, 
may have been the sparks which set war-flames to 
burning in those countries, as we have all heard; 
but if personalities caused the War of 1812 we 
should go further back than the era of Jeffer- 
son's old slippers and corduroy breeches. We 
would certainly have to return to that shameful 
scene in London in the year 1786, when the King 
of England, in his own house, and before all his 
court, wilfully and deliberately snubbed the am- 
bassador of the United States. 

But all this is idle. Great Britain and America 
did not go to war on account of King George's rude- 
ness nor Jefferson's heelless slippers. The causes 
which led to the clash lay deeper. These instances 
of bad manners in King George and President 
Jefferson were but surface symptoms. 
27 401 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Mr. Jefferson put a stop to the prosecutions 
which were pending under the sedition law, and re- 
leased from fines and imprisonment those who had 
been convicted. 

With the first sloop which went to France bear- 
ing- despatches, he sent to Thomas Paine, who was 
living wretchedly in a Paris garret, an invitation to 
come home on this national vessel. 

To Samuel Adams, dwelling in Ms poor hut in 
Boston, the President wrote such a letter as an 
affectionate disciple might pen to his master. 

To both of these stanch Democrats, each of 
whom felt that he had been neglected and ill- 
treated, these generous, fraternal letters were like 
balm to wounds. It was a beautiful thing to do, 
and there was no political motive for the act. It 
was the impulse of a warm, loyal nature, finding 
pleasure in doing a kindness. 

To Dr. Priestley, the great Unitarian, he wrote 
in strains equally cordial, inviting him to become a 
guest at the White House. 



At the time of Jefferson's election Federalists 
filled all the offices. No sweeping removals were 
made, and the spoils system can not be traced back 
to him; but Mr. Jefferson did appoint Republicans 
from time to time — some of the vacancies having 
been made by death and some by removal — until at 

402 



JEFFERSON PRESIDENT 

the close of bis eight years' term the admiuistra- 
tion had become fairly representative of Repub- 
lican success. In fact, as Jefferson's popularity 
grew the whole nation changed, and Federalism 
almost vanished, excepting always the Federal 
judiciary. There its waning light was kept 
trimmed and burning by John Marshall, as pure a 
man, able a judge, and rabid a partizan as ever 
lived. 

The internal-revenue system was abolished, the 
army treated to " a chaste reduction," useless 
offices lopped away, and the public debt steadily 
lowered. By cutting down salaries, lessening the 
number of office-holders, and exercising economy 
throughout the service, a surplus was accumulated 
in spite of the fact that the internal taxes and the 
direct taxes had been repealed. The national debt 
was being paid off so rapidly that Mr. Jefferson 
looked forward to the time in the near future 
when the surplus could be applied to the opening of 
canals, the building of roads, and the establishment 
of a national system of education. This surplus 
was to be derived always from import duties laid 
upon luxuries. 

The coast survey was ordered, the Military 
Academy at West Point opened, the Cumberland 
Road from the Potomac to the Ohio begun, liberal 
naturalization laws were enacted, millions of acres 
of land fairly obtained from the Indians, and a law 

403 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

passed to put an end to the foreign slave-trade, on 
January 1, 1808. 

Foreign ministers were withdrawn from Hol- 
land, Prussia, and other nations where they were 
useless, and Mr. Jefferson expressed the opinion 
that a consular establishment was all we needed 
abroad. What real benefit this republic derives 
from its costly and elaborate diplomatic parapher- 
nalia it would puzzle a very able expert to explain. 
It would not be difficult to make a strong showing 
to the contrary. 

The Federal judiciary was Jefferson's pet bug- 
bear, and he did all he could to republicanize the 
courts. He removed some attorneys and marshals, 
but with the judges it was an impossible task. Im- 
peachments were tried, but that cumbersome ma- 
chinery would not work satisfactorily. 

Judge Pickering, of the New Hampshire dis- 
trict, was convicted and removed, but when John 
Randolph, of Roanoke, arraigned Judge Chase, of 
Maryland, he met a crushing defeat. Judge Chase 
had been violently partizan on the bench, and had 
exhibited every trait of the judicial tyrant during 
the trials of persons prosecuted under the sedition 
acts. But when the Republicans put Chase him- 
self in the dock, it was soon apparent that he was 
too strong for them. He was well connected, he 
commanded unanimous party support, his Revolu- 
tionary record was fine, he had been a signer of the 

404 



JEFFERSON PRESIDENT 

Declaration of Independence, and he had committed 
no indictable offense. Luther Martin was his lead- 
ing lawyer, and in the hands of Luther Martin, the 
debate being on questions of law, Randolph was a 
lightweight, indeed. 

Mr. Jefferson had countenanced, and indirectly 
encouraged, the impeachment of Chase, but he had 
not committed himself. Holding serenely aloof, 
he viewed Randolph's discomfort philosophically, 
though he was chagrined at Chase's escape. 

Randolph, of Roanoke, was not a patient man — 
enduring much and thinking no evil — and he did 
not relish what appeared to be the task of raking 
chestnuts out of the fire for other people, especially 
when the fire was particularly hot and the chest- 
nuts refused to be raked. It is thought that the 
sudden decline in his admiration for Thomas Jeffer- 
son dated from the collapse of the Chase impeach- 
ment. 

In matters of legislative reform Mr. Jefferson 
had to proceed slowly. He treated as null the ap- 
pointments Mr. Adams had made at the close of his 
term, and as soon as possible prevailed upon Con- 
gress to repeal the act creating the circuit courts. 

The Federalists very strongly resisted Mr. Jef- 
ferson in his assault upon the Federal judiciary. 
They realized the advantage they held there quite 
as fully as the Republicans did, and they contested 
every inch of ground. By the time the Circuit 

405 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Court Act had been repealed and the impeachment 
of Judge Chase had faik^d, Mr. Jett'ersou appears to 
have been convinced that he could do nothing more 
without running the risk of splitting up his own 
party. To himself and to the Ilepublicans gen- 
erally it afterward became a source of regret that 
nothing more was done to put limits on the power 
of Congress and of the judiciary. The troubles 
with England, the disunion tendencies in the East- 
ern States, the (luasi-Federalism of .Mr. Madison, 
the continual alarmist outcries of political enemies 
— all acted as brakes to the wheel of Jeffersonian 
purpose. 

To dream in the studio is one thing, to conduct 
an administration is another. It is this difference 
between theory and practise which makes Jeffer- 
son seem inconsistent. 

Prom the time that he first realized the unique 
position of the Federal judiciary in our system, 
Mr. Jefferson was its bitter enemy. It violated all 
his ideas of Democracy. Its judges were not 
amenable to popular control. There was no rota- 
tion in ottice, no short terms, no frequent appeals 
to the people. A body so independent of the 
popular will, and clothed with the tremendous 
power of setting aside the statutes of every State 
and of the United States, was by the very law of 
its nature antagonistic to the principle upon 
which democratic government is founded. The will 

406 



JEFFERSON PRESIDENT 

of the people, the preference of the majority, was 
sovereign, according to Republican theory; but 
here was a sovereignty more permanent than 
Presidents and Senates, more untrammeled than 
the Executive or the Legislature, and its final 
word was law supreme, overriding cabinets, 
lawmakers, and people. By its very constitution, 
such a tribunal would be out of touch with the 
masses, would feel no popular impulse, would in- 
evitably tend to become aristocratic, if not auto- 
cratic, in method and in purpose. By the elemental 
selfishness of human nature, it would eternally seek 
to broaden the bounds of its empire. Jefferson 
dreaded it, prophesied against it, bewailed its irre- 
sistible power. 

Reading his gloomy forecasts, one almost be- 
lieves he anticii)ated government by injunction 
and the advent of the deputy marshal. But we 
doubt if even his wildest fears could have pictured 
a situation in which Congress is not allowed to put 
the income tax upon a millionaire, and when the 
sympathizer with labor is enjoined from persuasion 
and peaceful aid. 



407 



CHAPTER XLII 

THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 

One of the eternally convincing proofs of Mr. 
Jefferson's range of vision as a statesman is the 
importance which he attached to the West while it 
was still a wilderness. He was quick to encourage 
George Rogers Clarke when he offered to invade 
the vast Illinois country. When Governor of Vir- 
ginia, he pushed the frontier of his State to the 
banks of the Mississippi, and held it there with a 
fort. While minister to France he had urged Led- 
yard to go across Europe to Kamchatka, pass the 
strait, and from the shores of the Pacific explore the 
country back to the settlements in the East. 

When Spain had demanded full control of the 
Mississippi, and John Jay had proposed to yield 
to the Spanish demands for the closure of the river, 
Jefferson and Madison both realized what Jay and 
Washington did not — the vast importance of the 
Mississippi to the American people. 

Prof. John Fiske, in his Critical Period of Ameri- 
can History, holds up George McDuffie, " the 
very able Senator from South Carolina," to the 
scorn of posterity because Mr. McDuffie failed to 

408 



THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 

foresee the value of the unpeopled wilderness in the 
northwestern part of the republic. This was very 
short-sighted in Mr. McDuffie, and serves to lower 
him as a statesman. But South Carolina was not 
the only State which had a " very able Senator." 
Massachusetts had one — Daniel Webster — a " very 
able Senator," indeed. 

The value of the Northwestern lands was passed 
upon by him as well as by McDuffie, and Prof. John 
Fiske, of New England, fails to cite the opinion of 
Mr. Webster. 

The very able Senator from Massachusetts ex- 
pressed himself in these words: 

" What do we want with this vast worthless 
area? This region of savages and wild beasts, of 
deserts of shifting sands and whirlwinds of dust, of 
cactus and prairie-dogs? To what use could we 
ever hope to put these great deserts, or those end- 
less mountain ranges, impenetrable and covered to 
their base with eternal snow? What can we ever 
hope to do with the western coast, a coast of three 
thousand miles, rock-bound, cheerless, uninviting, 
and not a harbor on it? What use have we for this 
country? " 

Thus spoke Daniel Webster, " the very able 
Senator " from Massachusetts. All of which 
merely goes to show that neither George McDuffie 
nor Daniel Webster had the far-seeing statesman- 
ship which Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon Bona- 

409 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

parte possessed. For each of these marvelous men 
fully realized the vast possibilities of the Western 
wilderness, just as the much-reviled John Law had 
foreseen it. One of the first fruits of victory which 
Napoleon snatched at was Louisiana. The bestial, 
impotent Bourbons had lost it; he, the upstart Cor- 
sican, would have it back. And in 1800 he got it — 
the imperial domain out of which has been carved 
some fourteen of the best States and Territories of 
the Union. Mr. Jefferson had cast longing eyes 
upon this glorious region, and had dreamed of the 
day when it would be ours. To every movement of 
the Spaniards on the Mississippi he was acutely 
sensitive. When they withdrew our right of de- 
posit at New Orleans he was prompt in having it 
restored — doing it by patient diplomacy, blood- 
lessly, when the Federalists in Congress were stri- 
ving to force him into war. 

On the instant that it became known in this 
country that Napoleon had secured the huge prize 
and meant to develop a colonial empire between 
the great river and the Pacific Ocean Mr. Jeffer- 
son's peace talk gave way to sterner language. He 
said as plainly as words could make it that France 
would not be allowed to establish a colonial em- 
pire here, thus throwing into the face of Napoleon 
Bonaparte the first declaration of something which 
resembled the " Monroe doctrine." 

But peace was always better than war, and Mr. 
410 



THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 

Jefferson, while making threats, offered to trade. 
Let France sell us New Orleans and part of Florida. 

That Napoleon was swerved one hair's breadth 
from his course by anything Mr. Jefferson said or 
did no student can allege. Nor is it true that the 
revolt of the negroes in San Domingo had anything 
to do with it. Had not England broken the peace 
of Amiens, Napoleon would have made the attempt 
to hold Louisiana in spite of Jefferson, in spite of 
Livingston and Monroe, and in spite of the negroes 
of San Domingo. 

The expedition which General Victor was to 
have led to Louisiana was already prepared, and 
sailing-orders had been issued, when it suddenly 
appeared that there would be another struggle to 
the death with Great Britain. This, and this only, 
changed Napoleon's purpose. In the twinkling of 
an eye he did change, just as he afterward changed 
his plan against England to the plan against Aus- 
tria — which carried him to Austerlitz and made 
William Pitt roll up the map of the world and turn 
his tired face to the wall. 

Livingston had made no headway in his efforts 
to buy a portion of the Louisiana country, nor would 
James Monroe, whom Jefferson hurried across with 
secret instructions-^ have had any better success. 
But Napoleon's circumstances changed, his mind 
changed, and from ^ ullen " Nay " he shifted his tone 
to eager " Yea." That is all there is of it. He 

411 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

said to his minister: " I know the value of what 
1 sell. I regret its loss deeply. But 1 am powerless 
to hold it. England will seize it. Offer it to the 
United States — sell the whole of Louisiana. Do 
this at once! " 

Absolutely he flung to us, almost in spite of our- 
selves, what we had not asked for, and what he 
would have kept but for the certainty that Great 
Britain would get it. The only questions Living- 
ston and Monroe had to settle were (1) whether they 
should take the responsibility in buying the whole 
country, and (2) what price they would pay. They 
decided wisely to accept the entire property, and 
they agreed to pay what amounted to |15,000,000. 

Had Jefferson not been prompt, had our minis- 
ters not been men of nerve, had Napoleon not been 
capable of rapid decision, Louisiana would doubt- 
less have been the first prize of the British fleet in 
the war which broke out twelve days later. Had 
England got her clutches upon that immense 
region, who can say that we ever could have loosed 
them? The power which has held Canada on the 
north might have made good against us the line of 
the Mississippi. 

To Jefferson's initiative and i'arsightedness we 
owe it that we secured without bloodshed, for a 
trifling sum of money, a territory which doubled our 
republic, assured its expansicn to the Gulf of 
Mexico and to the Pacific, and thus lifted us, by a 

412 



THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 

stroke of genius, into a world power of the first 
class. 

Hamilton had dreamed of something akin to 
this to be achieved by a doubtful bloody war with 
Spain and France, in which we should have en- 
tangled ourselves in a dangerous alliance with 
Great Britain. His Miranda scheme, looked at in 
the most favorable light, amounted to that — a 
bloody, doubtful war, and a dangerous, entangling 
alliance. Once over here with her fleets and 
armies. Great Britain might not have been willing 
to go when we said go. 

Jefferson, pursuing a plan different in sjjirit and 
in principle, secured all the results which Hamil- 
ton's most brilliant success could have won, with- 
out the risk, the bloodshed, and the entangling 
British alliance. 

In selling Louisiana Napoleon did not neglect 
the people. He provide*! for them, using ex- 
pressions which did credit to his heart as well as 
his head. 

If Lucien and Joseph Bonaparte ever had the 
bath-tub squabble with their mighty brother, which 
Henry Adams and James K. Hosmer dwell on so 
lovingly, it but increases one's contempt for the 
brothers. Napoleon had adopted the only course a 
statesman could adopt. To give Louisiana back to 
Spain would have been a folly which even so stupid 
a man as Joseph Bonaparte might have understood. 

413 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

A barren debate has arisen over the respective 
merits of Livingston and Monroe in the Louisiana 
purchase. As a Southern man, intimate with Jef- 
ferson and Madison, Monroe may have better appre- 
ciated the grandeur of Jefferson's aims. Livingston 
was certainly nearer to the ideas of John Jay, for 
he wrote Madison: 

" I would rather have confined our views to 
smaller objects, and I think that if we succeed it 
would be good policy to exchange the west bank (of 
the Mississippi) with Spain for the Floridas, reserv- 
ing New Orleans." 

This is what Livingston wrote at the time. Not 
what he said to Talleyrand, or Barbe Marbois, or 
Napoleon, but his maturely considered opinion 
given to his own Government. 

Think of it! He was willing to swap the West- 
ern Continent from the Mississippi to the Pacific for 
the island of New Orleans and the Floridas! There 
is no room left for doubt. Livingston must be 
classed not with Jefferson, but with George Mc- 
Duflfle and Daniel Webster, each of whom was a 
" very able Senator." 

Mr. Livingston afterward wrote in a very differ- 
ent strain. But that is another matter. Most of us 
can see what will happen after it has happened. 

In buying Louisiana Mr. Jefferson made no hol- 
low pretense that the Constitution gave him 
authority. He frankly admitted that it was out- 

414 



THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 

side the Constitution, and needed the sanction of 
the people. He acted upon the principle that it 
was a case which had not been foreseen, had not 
been provided for, but which was of such vital and 
certain benefit to the Union that it must be done, 
law or no law. An overwhelming national neces- 
sity breaks treaties and written compacts — a most 
dangerous doctrine, but one which is recognized. 

The American Peace Commissioners acted by 
virtue of this unwritten law in making a treaty with 
England separate from France. 

The delegates to the Constitutional Convention 
of 1787 obeyed the same rule when they disregarded 
their instructions and made a new Constitution. 

More recently, Jay acted in that spirit in making 
his treaty with Great Britain. 

A dangerous principle, most assuredly, and one 
whose only justification is the existence of irresis- 
tible national interest, from which national consent 
will be presumed. 

Jefferson acted upon this principle, and the na- 
tion ratified what he had done. Congress and the 
people were not only satisfied, they were delighted. 
Jefferson's praises resounded throughout the land. 
In New England alone was disapproval heard. 

As early as 1786 leaders in Massachusetts de- 
clared that if Jay's attempts to close the Missis- 
sippi were not successful in Congress it was time 
for the New England States to withdraw from the 

415 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Union and to form a confederation by tliem- 
selves. 
\ In 1792 and in 1794 similar talk was rife; in 

1796 Lieutenant-Governor Wolcott, of Connecticut, 
said that if Jefferson were elected President he 
would favor a separation of the Northern from the 
Southern States. 

The purchase of Louisiana intensified this sec- 
tional jealousy, the New England Federalists fore- 
seeing the growth of a Western world which would 
be injurious to Eastern commerce. They declared 
that the Eastern States would be compelled to 
establish an Eastern Empire. This disunion senti- 
ment continued to grow until Josiah Quincy de- 
clared in Congress that if the bill for the admission 
of Louisiana passed the bond of the Union would be 
dissolved, and that as it would be the right of all 
the States to secede, it would be the duty of some — 
" amicably if they can, violently if they must." 

It is only when we contrast the wisdom of Mr. 
Jefferson with such shortsighted men as those who 
threatened to break up the Union because he had 
gained Louisiana for it, that we begin to realize the 
difference between a statesman and a humdrum 
politician. 

Our new empire was promptly reduced to pos- 
session, and Mr. Jefferson set on foot an exploring 
expedition to open up to the knowledge of the 
world the mysterious regions of the far West. 

416 



THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 

Starting out from St. Louis, a small band of 
Americans under the two Virginians, Lewis and 
Clarke, crossed the Rocky Mountains and made 
their way to where the Columbia Kiver enters the 
Pacific Ocean. At a cost of |2,500, Jefferson, 
through the work of these explorers, not only ac- 
quired knowledge of the Louisiana purchase, but 
laid the foundation to our claim to the Oregon 
country, whose value Mr. Webster was so far from 
understanding. 

Mr. Roosevelt, in his Winning of the West, 
grudges Mr. Jefferson any credit for the Louisiana 
purchase, being far less generous to the Southern 
statesman than was another great Northern writer, 
James G. Blaine. 

In his Twenty Years of Congress, Mr. Blaine 
bears frank and full testimony to Jefferson, and he 
clearly demonstrates how much ouf republic 
gained by Jefferson's initiative and promptitude. 

Mr. Roosevelt contends that the American peo- 
ple would have got the territory anyhow. It was 
only a question of time. How could Mr. Roosevelt 
know that? We have wanted Canada bad enough, 
several times, but we have never got it. Even as 
these lines are being written (May, 1903) American 
citizens by the thousand are pouring into Canadian 
territory from our Northwest, but England still 
holds the land and our Americans will become sub- 
jects of Great Britain. 

28 417 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSOX 

Emigration cares less about forms of goTern- 
ment and national names than it does about condi- 
tions of soil, climate, wages, cost of living, richness 
of mines, and a freedom of ojiportunitv. 

So as to Louisiana. Americans would have 
streamed across the Mississippi to settle the land 
beyond, but had England been its sovereign the 
emigrant might have had as little thought of throw- 
ing off the British dominion as he now has when he 
settles in Canada. 

Had Mr. Jefferson been '' timid, weak, and vacil- 
lating," had he waited just a few davs longer, the 
breaking out of the war would have caught him 
with the Louisiana business unsettled, and Great 
Britain would have seized it is French territory. 
He is a prophet, indeed, who can predict that we 
" w^ould have got Louisiana anyhow " had England 
been allowed to get her strong hands on it. 



During former administrations the Mohamme- 
dan powers of the Mediterranean had remained our 
" great and good friends," at a cost of $2,000,000. 
Jefferson determined to put an end to tribute- 
paying. Recurring to his old Paris plans, he sent 
war-vessels to the Mediterranean and began to per- 
suade the infidels with guns. Partly by hard fight- 
ing, and partly by negotiation and one final ran- 
som of 160,000, Jefferson wrung an honorable peace 

418 



THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE 

from the Mohammedans aud they troubled him no 
more. 

In the year 1800, John Adams being President, 
Commodore Bainbridge was compelled by the Dey 
of Algiers to carry Algerine despatches to the Sul- 
tan at Constantinople, and the American man-of- 
war, the George Washington, sailed through the 
Dardanelles with the " pirate " flag at the mast- 
head. 

Adams did nothing about it; Jefferson did. He 
made it impossible for that kind of degradation to 
befall us again. 



419 



CHAPTER XLIII 

JOHN RANDOLPH, OF ROANOKE 

The leader of Mr. Jefferson's administration on 
the floor of the House in Congress was one of the 
most vividly picturesque figures that has ever ap- 
peared in our political history. John Randolph, of 
Roanoke, was born in 1773, and among liis ancestors 
he counted not only the Scotch Earls of Murray, but 
Pocahontas, the daughter of a king. Whether a 
lineage of this sort justifies inordinate pride is a 
fair question for debate. That the Scotch Earls of 
Murray at some time or other were cattle thieves, 
just as most of the other feudal lords of Normandy, 
France, Germany, and England were plunderers by 
sea or land, need not be seriously doubted; yet, as 
earls go, they stood high. Pocahontas, too, was 
only the daughter of a naked Indian, who cooked 
his fish with the scales on and the entrails undis- 
turbed within,^ while the little princess, in all 
the charms of unclothed nature, would play with 
the Jamestown boys, " turning a somerset " equal 
to any of them. Yet, after all, she was a princess; 
and just as the Prince of Wales in England M^alked 

* Bruce, Economic History of Virginia in the Seventeenth Century. 

420 



JOHN RANDOLPH, OF ROANOKE 

behind the African chief because he was a king, so 
the descendants of Pocahontas were proud of their 
descent from the alleged savior of Smith because 
she loas a princess. Besides family pride, John Ran- 
dolph inherited vast family estates — lands, houses, 
negroes, horses, cattle— but no cash to speak of, 
and the inevitable British debt. Randolph com- 
plained, early and feelingly, of the condition in 
which he found his estate, and refers to " the scuffle 
with negroes and overseers for something like a 
pittance of rent and profit upon my land and 
stock." 

A Charleston bookseller, who saw Randolph in 
"^ 1776, describes him as " a tall, gawky, flaxen-haired 
stripling, with a complexion of good parchment 
color, beardless chin, and as much assumed self- 
confidence as any two-footed animal I ever saw." 
Later in life Randolph looked like an old shriveld 
woman. His bones had no flesh, his voice was a 
feminine shriek, his face was literally covered with 
countless wrinkles, and his color was that of old, 
yellow parchment. Beard he never had; and he was 
a bundle of nerves, whose capacity for suffering was 
pathetic. Things which other men of less sensitive 
organization would never notice tortured him to 
distraction. He was quick to love and to hate. 
There was a quality which we call " womanish " in 
both his loves and his hates. 

He was the slave of impulse and temper, irri- 
421 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

table to the last degree, incapable of sustained, sys- 
tematic labor. 

Imperfectly educated, his genius undisciplined, 
his faculties untrained, he was nevertheless a most 
effective speaker. On the hustings he was superb, 
a master of a crowd. When Robert Toombs was at 
the University of Virginia, he rode sixty miles to 
hear John Randolph make one of his last speeches, 
and Mr. Toombs always referred to it as one of the 
most powerful of speeches. 

The self-confidence to which the Charleston 
book-dealer referred as assumed was not assumed. 
Randolph's confidence in himself was real, and was 
unlimited. At a public dinner in 1795 he dared to 
propose as a toast, " George Washington — may he 
be damned! " 

When this sentiment met disapproval the bold 
youth added, " If he signs Jay's treaty." 

His very first dash into politics was a race for 
Congress, and the first opponent whom he met in 
public debate was Patrick Henry. No small game 
for "Jack Randle." He struck at the antlered 
stag. He was only twenty-six when he thus threw 
himself against the Washington-Henry-Marshall in- 
fluence in Virginia, and he was victorious. Such a 
triumph was not calculated to lessen his self- 
esteem. 

It must have been a sight to see Randolph dis- 
mount from his splendid saddle-horse at the door, 

422 



JOHN RANDOLPH, OF ROANOKE 

and go stalking into the House of Representatives 
with a cap on his head, a whip in his hand, top- 
boots on his feet, and a pair of pointer dogs at his 
heels. It made no difference to him whether busi- 
ness had begun or not; he would loudly salute his 
friends, and, after drawing off his gloves, fire away 
at whatever subject happened to be before the 
House. If some member whom he disliked was on 
the floor he would, as apt as not, turn round, and 
noisily walk out. 

Brilliant, eccentric, brave, honest, ready to 
tongue-lash anybody who offended him, cursed with 
a restless disposition which craved excitement, and 
a morbid temper which made it next to impossible 
for him to work in harmony with others, he tor- 
mented himself, quarreled with relatives, cast off 
friends, broke with political associates, and became 
almost an Ishmaelite. Yet a few of the best men 
loved him, one of the finest constituencies in Amer- 
ica stood true to him, and a very considerable per- 
centage of Southern people believed that he was the 
most clear-sighted and consistent statesman the 
South ever had. 

Between Thomas Jefferson and John Randolph 
there could never have been much in common. 

They were relatives, but not so close as to be in- 
timate. They both loved books, but in a different 
way. John Randolph's thirty-five hundred volumes 
were the companions of lonely hours, to be read 

423 



LIFE AND TIMES OP^ JEFFERSON 

whenever the whim seized him, and dropped when 
he was tired. 

He was no student, and while his mind was 
richly stored with the treasures of literature, he 
was complete master of no subject whatever. 

Irregular, insubordinate, impatient of rule or re- 
straint, such a methodist as Jefferson was certain, 
sooner or later, to provoke his captain's temper and 
reckless tongue. 

But at first, Randolph as House leader, and 
Jefferson as President, got on well though. One 
had to be extremel}^ anxious for a row, indeed, to 
pick a fuss with so mild, so patient, so conciliatory, 
so adroit a politician as Jefferson. 

The Republican party was young, it was enjoy- 
ing the first great victory it had won, its chief was 
still its prophet, nothing had yet occurred to cause 
divisions, and therefore during the first year or so 
of the Jefferson administration John Randolph, 
Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee and 
House leader for the Executive, was the most 
powerful man in Congress. 

He was no leader. He was a boss. He drove his 
men by the force of his temper and the fury of his 
tongue. His pointed finger was a lance; his wit a 
sword of fire. Still, the party being obedient, the 
President supreme, and Randolph orthodox, he was 
effective. He put administrative measures through 
under whip and spur. So long as he spoke in the 

424 



JOHN RANDOLPH, OF ROxVNOKE 

name of the part}' he was irresistible. Men might 
curse him in their hearts, but they dared not vote 
against him. But troubles arose. There was the 
impeachment of Judge Chase, in which the Presi- 
dent had thrown out no aid and comfort to the 
prosecution. Randolph had caught a hard fall, had 
been sorely bruised, and no presidential balm was 
forthcoming. Then there was the Yazoo fraud 
business, wherein the State of Georgia had lost, 
through a bribed Legislature, 40,000,000 acres of 
land; and wherein James Madison, Matthew Lyon, 
and other prominent Kepublicans, had indorsed a 
proposition to let the land companies have 5,000,000 
acres, in compromise, as compensation to alleged 
innocent purchasers. Randolph could see no inno- 
cence in any purchaser of this Yazoo land, and his 
wrath flamed fiercely against compromise and com- 
promisers. He denounced Lyon, and Lyon de- 
nounced him; he denounced Madison, and the Sec- 
retary of State defied him. He denounced Gideon 
Granger, the Cabinet officer, who had taken a fee 
from the land companies, and was helping to push 
the compromise through. 

In this struggle we must admire Randolph and 
sympathize with him. He had been in Georgia dur- 
ing the Yazoo agitation, and knew all about it. He 
knew that a greedy corporation had corrupted the 
Legislature and perpetrated a tremendous piece of 
robbery. He may have been present at Louisville, 

425 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Ga., when General James Jackson, in the presence 
of the assembled Legislature, all the State officials, 
and a multitude of private citizens, " brought down 
fire from heaven," through a sunglass, and burnt the 
detested Yazoo Act. At any rate, he felt that the 
fraud upon the State of Georgia had been so noto- 
rious, and had been so promptly and publicly ex- 
posed and repudiated, that there could be no ques- 
tion of " innocent purchaser " concerning this land 
— no matter what some Federal judge might say. 

The heat, the violence, the persistence which 
Randolph manifested in his fight against the Ya- 
zoo corruptionists are to his credit. As an honest 
man and fearless Congressman he staked his po- 
litical life on the issue — combating Madison, Jeffer- 
son, Lyon, Granger, and everybody else who refused 
to help him punish the rascality of the Yazoo 
gang. 

There were two sides, as there almost always 
are. Jefferson had prevailed upon the State of 
Georgia to cede the disputed Yazoo grant to the 
General Government, with the understanding that 
Georgia should be paid |1,250,000 out of the pro-, 
ceeds of the first sales of public lands. To avoid all 
trouble and complications, the administration was 
in favor of compromising with the so-called " inno- 
cent purchasers " by yielding to them 5,000,000 
acres of the land. But the taking of a fee by the 
Postmaster-General from the claimants to lobby 

426 



JOHN RANDOLPH, OF ROANOKE 

their bill through cast the shadow of a scandal upon 
the whole administration, and one can not escape 
the suspicion that the Yazoo grant, conceived 
in fraud, remained a source of corruption to the 
last. 

But the actual breach between Randolph and 
Jefferson occurred on the proposition to acquire 
Florida. The President was proceeding about the 
business with that diplomacy which in the Louisi- 
ana case had been successful. He was making 
public threats to fight Spain, while by secret mes- 
sage he was asking Congress for money to be used 
in negotiation. To the public there was a revela- 
tion, to the initiated a secret. This principle, or 
want of principle (as the case may be), had worked 
well enough for Louisiana, and Randolph had been 
the presidential agent. But now the floor leader re- 
volted. In his own mind he drew a distinction be- 
tween the two cases, and, to the amazement of Con- 
gress, he began an opposition. Soon the terrors of 
his tongue were loosed upon the President. At first 
there was a flurry in administration circles — almost 
a panic — but it soon passed. Jefferson's confidence 
did not forsake him, his following in Congress stood 
the strain; and when Randolph set up his independ- 
ent standard the merest handful went with him. 

For many and many a year Randolph remained 
in the public service, most of the time in the 
House, one term in the Senate, one mission to Rus- 

427 



LIP^E AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

sia, always eoiispicuous, always courageous, often 
right, generally in the minority, but nothing more 
than a brilliant free-lance, without decisive in- 
fluence. 

When one reads his letters to friends whom he 
really honored and his descriptions of his travels 
in Europe, one regrets that the literature of his 
country lost a mind so rich and so brilliant. 

As a conversationalist, when familiarly spend- 
ing an evening within a small congenial circle he 
was at his best; and none excelled him then. 

New Englanders were not, as a rule, feverishly 
fond of John Randolph, but notice the impression 
he made upon a Senator from Massachusetts, Elijah 
Mills: " He is really a most singular and interesting 
man. He dined with us yesterday. He was dressed 
in a rough, coarse, short hunting-coat, with small- 
clothes and boots, and over liis boots a pair of 
coarse cotton leggings, tied with strings around his 
legs. He engrossed almost the whole conversation, 
and was exceedingly amusing as well as eloquent 
and instructive." 



With the sole exception of Randolph, Jefferson 
had no serious troubles with his lieutenants. His 
Cabinet was singularly harmonious. James Madi- 
son, Secretary of State; Albert Gallatin, Secretary 
of the Treasury; Henry Dearborn, Secretary of 

428 



JOHN RANDOLPH, OF ROANOKE 

War; Gideon Granger, Postmaster-General; Levi 
Lincoln, Attorney-General; Kobert Smith, Secre- 
tary of the Navy, were all excellent officers and 
loyal to the chief. 

Congress was probably never handled so adroit- 
ly and successfully as it was by Mr, Jefferson. 



429 



CHAPTER XLIV 

BURR, ADAMS, HAMILTON 

Aaron Burr quietly took his place as Vice- 
President, and made a model officer. Senators who 
had sat under John Adams must have felt refreshed 
by the change. 

When General Washington became President, 
and Mr. Adams Vice-President, all was confusion, 
and modes of doing things had to be adopted before 
things themselves could be done. Here was infinite 
field for discussion and for display of knowledge of 
the ways of other peoples. 

Whether the President and Vice-President were 
like Roman consuls, or Spartan kings, or Cartha- 
ginian suffetes, Mr. Adams did not know for cer- 
tain; but he was anxious to find out, and more than 
willing to talk about it from the chair. " I am pos- 
sessed of two separate powers; the one in esse, the 
other in posse. I am Vice-President. In this I am 
nothing, but may be everything. But I am also 
President of the Senate; what shall I do when 
President Washington comes? I can not be Presi- 
dent then. No, gentlemen, I can not. I wish you 
gentlemen to think what I shall be." 

With a confusion remotely resembling Ham- 
430 



BURR, ADAMS, HAMILTON 

let's, Mr. Adams made earnest efforts to understand 
himself, locate himself, and adjust himself. In 
nearly every debate he took an active part. Sena- 
tors who in the progress of their remarks went 
astray on matters of fact or argument he set right 
from the chair. Frequently he would address the 
Senate for nearly an hour at a time; and that day 
which passed without several speeches of varying 
lengths from Vice-President Adams was excep- 
tional. A great stickler for forms, he was constant- 
ly telling the Senate how certain things were done 
in the House of Lords in England; and on the first 
address of Washington to Congress his clerk in- 
dorsed, with Adams's approval, the royal phrase 
" his gracious speech." 

When it gradually dawned upon Mr. Adams that 
he and Washington were not to be treated as 
Roman consuls, Spartan kings, or Carthaginian 
suffetes his disgust grew apace — so much so that 
when Senator Maclay and others stoutly contended 
for the simple manners of democracy, Adams de- 
clared that had he known the American people 
would come to such a pass he would never have 
taken up arms against Great Britain. 

Fussy, consequential, pompous, garrulous, with- 
out dignity of person or of manner, his face often 
expanded in a vacant laugh, John Adams was not 
the man to be imposing or impressive as a presiding 
officer over the Senate of the United States. 

431 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Jefferson had, of course, adopted a different 
standard when he came to preside over the Senate; 
and nothing more was heard of the consuls, the 
kings, or the suffetes. Romans, Grecians, and Car- 
thaginians were suffered to rest in peace. The 
Vice-President no longer acted as schoolmaster for 
Senators. Under Jefferson's firm, gentle control, 
the Senate began to assume the character befitting 
the most responsible body in the New World. 

Aaron Burr followed the example of Jefferson; 
and his conduct as President of the Senate com- 
pelled unstinted praise from friends and foes alike. 
He was a model of decorum, was rigidly impartial, 
and was conspicuously capable. When his term ex- 
pired, he delivered a brief farewell address, which 
created a profound impression, and which even in 
the imperfect report handed down to us raises the 
speaker in the estimation of all who will read it. 

The received opinion about Burr is that he was 
a political adventurer, without care or thought for 
the law, the country, and for the human race. In 
that connection, one paragraph in his short speech 
is very striking. "This House is a sanctuary; a 
citadel of law, and of liberty; and it is here — it is 
here, in this exalted refuge — here, if anywhere, that 
resistance will be made to the storms of political 
frenzy and the silent arts of corruption. If the Con- 
stitution be destined to perish by the sacrilegious 
hands of the demagogue or the usurper, which God 

432 



BURR, ADAMS, HAMILTON 

avert, its expiring agonies will be witnessed on 
this floor." 

Whatever else it may be, this is not the language 
nor the conception of a mere shallow trifler. Just 
as Patrick Henry had foreseen the centralizing 
principles in the new Constitution, Aaron Burr real- 
ized the predominant power of the United States 
Senate. In each case the prediction was that of the 
statesman, for the facts were not then so apparent. 
" Storms of political frenzy " was the one danger, 
" the silent arts of corruption " was the other. 
Anybody who now looks in upon the United States 
Senate and mentally extracts therefrom the repre- 
sentatives and beneficiaries of " the silent arts of 
corruption," will be in considerable doubt as to 
whether he has left a quorum to do business. 

Dwarfing the House, overshadowing the Presi- 
dent, the Senate governs the republic; and "the 
silent arts of corruption " govern the Senate. 



With the election of Jefferson the career of 
Alexander Hamilton ended. This was not foreseen 
by him, nor was it realized by him until the master- 
ful management which the Virginian displayed in 
his first administration had borne its fruit in his 
second, and almost unanimous, election. Not till 
then did Hamilton give up the ghost politically. So 
late as January, 1804, he seems to have nursed the 
29 433 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

hope that Jefferson would do something very des- 
perate, revolutionary, and anarchistic — something 
which would justify the Federalist predictions and 
rekindle the Federalist hopes. On Wednesday, 
January 18, 1804, we find the three eminent patriots 
of New York — Rufus King, Gouverneur Morris, and 
Alexander Hamilton — dining together at King's. 
These notable three were " alarmed at the conduct 
of our rulers, and think the Constitution is about to 
be overturned." 

Hamilton and King " apprehend a bloody anar- 
chy." Morris thinks that the Constitution has al- 
ready been overturned. Anarchy is about to ensue 
in which property will be sacrificed. The only dif- 
ference between those three New York patriots is 
that King and Hamilton believe there will be anar- 
chy accompanied by bloodshed, while Morris thinks 
that the ruthless Jeffersonians will be content with 
the confiscation of houses, lands, mules, horses, 
cows, etc. 

Indeed, Hamilton was at sea — adrift on the 
great ocean without compass or rudder. All his 
fine plans and schemes had failed. His party was 
dead, and about to be buried. He had lost the great 
Washington, who had been his shield. His own per- 
sonal and political unpopularity now rested upon 
him with stifling weight. He was bankrupt in his 
finances. His tortuous intrigues with men and par- 
ties had raised up against him an army of venomous 

434 



BURR, ADAMS, HAMILTON 

enemies. Jefferson would have nothing to do with 
him — neither wanting his support nor fearing his 
opposition. His advice was not sought on any 
earthly subject, and his newspaper criticisms were 
treated with the contempt they deserved. Passed 
forever were the days when he could dictate the 
policies of Cabinets and control the votes of Con- 
gress. The only possible hope for Hamilton was that 
the country might become involved in war. In that 
event, his courage and ability would assuredly have 
guaranteed him a brilliant career, provided a 
friendly President was ready to give him high ap- 
pointment. In civil life he had no outlook what- 
ever. A comfortable law practise, a dreary strug- 
gle with debt, and a declining capacity for labor 
was his prospect, 

Hamilton had matured early — wonderfully so — 
but his limit of expansion had soon been reached; 
and in 1804 he was certainly not a growing man. 
He had paid the penalty of precocity. The decay 
had set in at an age when other men, not so rapid 
in early growth, were still expanding in knowledge 
and wisdom. In politics Hamilton and Burr had 
reached the point where each could knife the other 
in New York without being able to do more. Burr 
could get no office — Hamilton barred the way. 
Hamilton could get none — Burr and his own un- 
popularity blocked the path. 

For many years Hamilton had pursued Burr, in 
435 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

letters and private conversation, with every sort of 
accusation. Burr's private remarks were used 
against him; idle reports were repeated and exag- 
gerated; and the most injurious suspioions became 
facts to the jealous, embittered Hamilton. During 
all these years the two men were on friendly terms, 
dining at each other's house, their families min- 
gling freely in social intercourse. In fact. Burr 
does not seem to have known how rabid was Ham- 
ilton's hatred, nor how offensive his language. 
When Burr did find it out, when he did realize how 
inveterate had been Hamilton's hostility, he 
resolutely determined to call him to account. 

With Burr's first note in that fatal correspond- 
ence Hamilton seemed to have become suddenly 
conscious of his great imprudence and his great 
danger. In many of his letters against his rival, 
previous to that last correspondence — letters which 
are half frantic with jealousy, malice, and treacher- 
ous eagerness to deal a stealthy stab — Hamilton 
leaves upon the modern reader the impression that 
he was afraid of Burr. At all events, the corre- 
spondence leading up to the duel does not increase 
one's respect for Hamilton. As John Randolph 
said, the letters of Hamilton show a consciousness 
of inferiority to his antagonist. 

" On one side there is labored obscurity, much 
equivocation, and many attempts at evasion, not 
unmixed with a little blustering; on the other an 

436 



BURR, ADAMS, HAMILTON 

unshaken adherence to his object and an undevi- 
ating pursuit of it, not to be eluded or baffled. It 
reminded me of n sinkinp; fox pressed by a vigor- 
ous old hound, where no shift is j^ermitted to 
avail him." 

When Gouverneur Morris heard the result of 
the duel, he hastened to the beside of his dying 
friend. Hamilton was speechless. Morris sat by 
him till he expired. It was a tragic scene — the dead 
husband and father, the frantic wife and children; 
the grief-stricken, sympathizing friends. Morris 
was asked to pronounce the funeral oration. This 
request caused some embarrassment to Morris, and 
his diary reflects it. He says that the subject is 
difficult. " The first ])oint in his biograjjhy is that 
he was a stranger of illegitimate birth; some mode 
must be contrived to pass this over handsomely. 
He was indiscreet, vain, and opinionated; these 
things must be told or the character will be incom- 
plete. He was in principle opposed to republican 
and attached to monarchical government. His 
share in forming our Constitution must be men- 
tioned, and his unfavorable opinion can not there- 
fore be concealed. 

" The most important part of his life was his ad- 
ministration of the finances. The system he pro- 
posed was radically wrong in one respect; more- 
over, it has been the subject of some just and much 
unjust criticism. 

437 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

" I can neither commit myself to a full approval, 
nor is it prudent to censure others. All this must, 
somehow or other, be reconciled. He was in prin- 
ciple opposed to dueling, yet he fell in a duel.'^ 

In other entries in his diary, made a few days 
later, Morris states that Hamilton " has died in- 
solvent," owing fifty to sixty thousand dollars, and 
leaving property which would probably sell for 
forty thousand. 

The wife and seven children " will be left desti- 
tute; and charitable friends take advantage of the 
profound public sympathy to set on foot a sub- 
scription." 

Gouverneur Morris was a personal and politi- 
cal friend of Alexander Hamilton. The estimate of 
the dead man, which was written when Morris was 
under the softening spell of circumstances elo- 
quently pleading for mercy to Hamilton, is cer- 
tainly in striking contrast with the rhapsodies of 
Daniel Webster and Prof. John Fiske. 

If ever there was a man who knew Hamilton 
thoroughly it was Gouverneur Morris. And no man 
was better qualified to weigh the true worth of 
Hamilton; for Morris was himself a practical, suc- 
cessful financier, a statesman of rare intelligence, 
a student of men and measures, capable of forming 
a cool, discriminating, accurate judgment of his 
fellow man. 



438 



CHAPTER XLV 

BRITISH AGGRESSIONS. — EMBARGO 

To avoid another such complication as had 
threatened to defeat the will of the people at the 
time of Jefferson's first election, a constitutional 
amendment, proAdding that the President and 
Vice-President should be separately voted for, was 
adopted during his first term. Under the operation 
of the new law he received at the election of 180-1 
162 electoral votes, while the opposite ticket got 
but 14. 

In the mad struggle between Great Britain and 
France, neutral commerce was swept off the sea. 
Between British orders in Council and French de- 
crees, no safety ground was left — the ships that 
missed the English whirlpool foundered on the 
French rocks. All efforts to make terms with the 
belligerents were vain. England contemptuously 
spurned our overtures, and France could do nothing 
unless England would alter her rules. Outrages 
without number were committed upon our mer- 
chant vessels by both England and France. An 
English war-ship, the Leopard, attacked one of our 
battle-ships, the Chesapeake, catching it unpre- 

439 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

pared, and forced it to haul down its flag, after rid- 
dling the ship and littering its decks with dead and 
wounded. 

British oflQcers then went on board the Chesa- 
peake, had the vessel searched, and took away three 
American-born negroes who were not British sub- 
jects, but who had served on, and deserted from, a 
British man-of-war.^ In truth, the insolence of 
our mother country toward us during the period 
when we could not help ourselves was something 
almost incredible. 

It did not commence with Jefferson's adminis- 
tration, as Henry Adams's histories would imply. 
On the contrary, it was a continuation of the strife 
begun in the Revolutionary War. It never had en- 
tirely ceased. It continued under Washington, 
and it made itself felt in the time of Adams. The 
Jay treaty did not put an end to it entirely. 

When the Jay treaty expired, Mr. Jefferson did 
his utmost to secure better terms, but was unable 
to do so. After ever so many snubs, delays, and dis- 
couragements, James Monroe and William Pinck- 
ney signed a treaty which violated their instruc- 
tions. It was so far short of what was needed and 
what was fair and just, that Mr. Jefferson rejected 
it without even taking the advice of the Senate. 

A study of the relations between the United 

' They found, also, a deserter named Ratcliffe. They hung him at 
Halifax. 

440 



BRITISH AGGRESSIONS. EMBARGO 

States and Great Britain from the conclusion of the 
Peace of Paris, in 1783, down to the battle of New 
Orleans, in 1815, is dismal reading. It is a long, 
long chapter of insolence, oppression, flagrant out- 
rage of the stronger nation toward the weaker. 

Who inflamed the Indians during Washington's 
administration, threw the Northwest into panic, 
lit the sky with the flames of burning homes, speed- 
ing the work of tomahawk and scalping-knife, and 
laying the train of events which led to the massacre 
of the army of St. Clair? Great Britain did it. 
Who kidnaped thousands of our citizens — snatch- 
ing them from wife, child, home, and freedom — 
and chained them to a detested service, scourged 
them with cruel lash, compelled them to fight their 
own countrymen, or hung them without pity at the 
yardarm? Great Britain did it. Who insulted our 
ministers, contemptuously refused to make amends 
for admitted wrongs, rebuffed every advance we 
made toward friendship, fomented sedition here 
among our own people, corresponding with traitors, 
encouraging treason, and plotting with them a re- 
bellion against the Government? Great Britain 
did it. 

The record is there for all to see. 

W^hat was Mr. Jefferson to do? Neither of his 
predecessors had provided a standing army. The 
people were intensely jealous of such a force. 
Public sentiment did not yet demand a war. New 

441 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

England, especially, preferred for things to remain 
as they were. 

In spite of orders in Council, French decrees, 
and wholesale seizures there were men engaged in 
commerce who preferred to continue to take the 
risks. 

But, after all, governments are responsible in 
national affairs; not individuals. Mr. Jefferson 
could not afford to have the flag insulted on every 
sea, our ships condemned, our citizens carried away 
into slavery. 

The Government must do something; and by an 
overwhelming majoritj^ Congress laid an embargo 
upon foreign commerce. That is, no American 
ship could clear for a foreign port, and no foreign 
ships could enter ours. 

The whole country suffered under this embargo. 
The shipowners of the maritime States and the 
planters of the South were equally hard hit; but 
the manufacturers of New England coined money. 
For the time, they enjoyed a complete monopoly of 
the domestic market — the true aim of all tariffs. 

While other sections were groaning under the 
embargo — produce unsold, debts unpaid, and no 
money in circulation — New England had more sur- 
plus cash than could readily find profitable invest- 
ment. Nevertheless, her people put up a clamor- 
ous opposition to the law, and illicit trade was 
brisk, open, and defiant. 

442 



BRITISH AGGRESSIONS. EMBARGO 

Congress passed a Force Bill, to enable the 
President to execute the law. This aggravated New 
England's discontent. 

The Massachusetts Legislature declared the en- 
forcing act to be unconstitutional and not legally 
binding. Courts and juries refused to convict 
violators of the law. Connecticut likewise nullified 
it by legislative enactment, and by the refusal of 
her Governor to honor the President's requisition 
for militia to enforce the law. Beset by foreign 
foes on the one hand and by domestic treason and 
rebellion on the other, Mr. Jefferson's position was 
deplorable. While he thoroughly believed in the 
embargo, and thought that persistence in that 
policy would force England to terms (as Madison 
always believed), the force of the measure was lost 
when New England preached and practised nulli- 
fication. 

His friend and House leader, Nicholas, of Vir- 
ginia, introduced resolutions (January 25, 1809) to 
repeal the embargo on June 1st. 

The date finally fixed was March 4, 1809. Non- 
intercourse with France and England was substi- 
tuted for the embargo, the repealing act merely 
serving to unfetter American trade as to other 
nations. 

The student can, if he will, see clearly enough, 
all along here, the evil effects of the original mis- 
take made by Washington's administration. Had 

443 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

we frankly continued the French alliance, as we 
had done during the Revolutionary War, there is 
every reason to believe that the results would have 
continued to be satisfactory. Combined, we were 
stronger than Great Britain; separate, she could 
overcome each. The Hamilton policy played into 
England's hands by giving her the advantage of 
combating her enemies one at a time. How any 
honest student can fail to see this without putting 
out his eyes, we can not understand. Bold, open 
alliance with France gave the weak colonies victory 
over Great Britain; bold, loyal observance of our 
treaty with her would have continued to maintain 
a superiority over her. Had we kept faith, had we 
kept the flags of the two republics intertwined, the 
tree which had borne such good fruit would have 
continued to bear good fruit. 

France had asked us for nothing that we could 
not safely have granted. Genet's privateers were 
not hurting us. Genet's proposition to have 
George Rogers Clarke call for volunteers and march 
against Spanish New Orleans was not likely to 
damage us. Genet's prayer that we pay France 
what we owed her was not such a very extravagant 
prayer — especially in view of the fact that he was 
willing to take it " in trade." Jefferson thought 
that the request should be granted, and so wrote. 
But most unfortunately the spell of Hamilton was 
upon the Cabinet, and the British faction carried 

444 



BRITISH AGGRESSIONS. EMBARGO 

the day. They kept us from getting the immense 
benefit of the sudden strength displayed by the 
French Republic. They kept us from deriving any 
benefit from the victories of Napoleon. And they 
could not prevent England from searching our ves- 
sels, seizing our sailors, and capturing our mer- 
chantmen during the whole humiliating period. 
And then when France had been exhausted and lay 
bleeding at every pore, England pounced upon the 
silly nation which had not recognized its oppor- 
tunity; and she had the extreme good luck to fight 
us when France could not have helped had she been 
inclined. 

Mr. Theodore Roosevelt speaks of the " infamous 
conduct " of Jefferson and Madison in not prepar- 
ing this republic for war. " Infamous " is a strong 
word even when thrown at notorious knaves: 
when applied to such men as Jefferson and Madison 
it has no more meaning than Daniel O'Connell's ref- 
erence to the Duke of Wellington as " a stunted 
corporal," or the British epithet " Corsican ogre " 
when applied to Xapoleon. Mr. Roosevelt was 
young when he denounced Jefferson and Madison 
as "infamous"; he would not repeat that state- 
ment now, we may be sure. 

But when even a younger man, it might have oc- 
curred to Mr. Roosevelt that all wars have their re- 
mote causes, sometimes hidden sources; and he 
might have inquired " What was the true origin of 

44.5 



y 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFEliSON 

our War of 1812?'- And had he given the subjeet 
the same fearless, intelligent, and independent 
study that he gave to the eon(]uest of the South- 
west, he would have put his unerring finger •)n the 
broken French treaty of 1778, and wouhl have 
bravely told the world: "This dishonored treaty, 
this breach of national faith, this selfish ingrati- 
tude to the people who came to us in the hour of our 
need — this, this was the origin of our woes." 

In short, the light was already begun, and we 
had a friend whose strength and fidelity had borne 
the stern test of the battle-field. We threw away 
that friend, and during the strife, Avhich had never 
really ceased, and which was kept up till the South- 
ern volunteers annihilated the British at New 
Orleans, we got buffets from both France and Great 
Britain, when we could have continued the alliance 
with France and compelled Great Britain to keep 
the peace. 

As a matter of fact, Mr. €Tefferson made con- 
siderable preparations for Avar. The regular army 
was increased by 0,000 men; militia to the number 
of 100,000, to serve six months, was authorized; 
and 15,000,000 spent upon war equipment and coast 
defenses. 

As events showed afterward, we did not lack 
for troops. What we needed was strong, loyal 
public sentiment supporting the administration — • 
and generals who would fight. 

446 



CHAPTEK XLVI 

burr's Till a I.. — J i: J- F Kit son's ilKfJOilD 

After the expiratif*n of hi.s term an Vife-PreKi- 
dent Burr wan adrift. A combiriation of the Clin- 
tons and IJvinjiStons in New Vork, aid^d hy IJanj- 
ilton, ha(J (J<'f('at<'(J him in the race for <^)ov<'nior; 
and after he had settled old scores by rallinj^ ifam- 
ilton out and killing hirn in th(' du^d, a sudden vs'ave 
of indignation had driven liurr from th^- Stat<-. fn- 
diftments for murder having been found against 
him; he eould not r<4urij. Jefferson had tak^-n sides 
with the JJvingston-r'linton fartion, as any praf- 
tifal ijolirir-ian w<juld havf- don^, and i>urr soon 
realized that he had no footing anywherf-. The 
President refused to give him a foreign appoint- 
ment, or to otherwise aid him, and he became des- 
I>erate. 

What his famous plot was in reality can not be 
known with f^-rtainty. LuK- in his JJf<- \i>- 'If^lared 
that he had intended to do what Sam Houston and 
others did in Texas. Andrew Jackson certainly 
understood that some such design against Spain 
was in contemplation, else he would never have 
gone so far with Burr as to call out his Tennessee 
militia. 

447 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

The purchase by Burr of the large Spanish grant 
points in the same direction, as did the talk at Blen- 
nerhasett's Island, where Mexican empire was the 
burden of the song. But the overtures which Burr 
made to Great Britain first, and then to Spain, and 
then to France, disclosed a purpose to sever the 
Union. It may be safely assumed that he would 
have stopped at nothing in the effort to retrieve his 
fortunes. 

There was a good deal of secret plotting and 
planning, cipher despatches, vague soundings of 
this man and that, purchase of supplies, collection 
of boats, employment of men, journeying up and 
down the Ohio and the Mississippi. 

Had Burr concentrated his mind upon the effort 
to wrest territory from Spain, talked that and 
nothing but that, frittering away no unnecessary 
time in social festivities, he might have done some- 
thing great in the Southwest. Such a design was 
familiar in those regions, and was popular. George 
Rogers Clarke had meditated such a scheme, and 
had found no diflflculty in gathering up volunteers. 
Others had brooded over similar plans, and the sen- 
timent favoring them had only to organize to be- 
come formidable. 

It was Burr's misfortune, however, to put faith 
in General James Wilkinson, as better men than 
Burr had done. 

Historians of our republic differ in many things, 
448 




ANDREW JACKSOX. 



BURR'S TRIAL. JEFFERSON'S RECORD 

but as to this man Wilkinson there is a concurrence 
of opinion that gives the wearied reader of contra- 
dictions a positive recreation. With one voice, and 
by a rising vote, scribes of every persuasion de- 
nounce Wilkinson. Venal, cowardly, treacherous, 
a bribe-taker from Spain, a traitor to the United 
States, faithless in all relations, public and private, 
he stands on the pillory side by side with Benedict 
Arnold. Burr trusted this man as Washington had 
trusted him. It was to Wilkinson that the cipher 
despatches were sent. It was Wilkinson who had 
it in his power to " give away " the whole con- 
spiracy. 

And he gave it away. 

This main prop failing, the rickety fabric fell. 
Wilkinson having betrayed his chief, the timorous 
associates everywhere rushed to cover. 

If ever it had been Burr's intention to make any 
armed resistance to the authorities of the United 
States, he was in no condition to do so when the 
crisis came. At the first notice that presidential 
proclamations and legal warrants were out against 
Burr, his supporters fell away in the haste of patri- 
otic self-preservation. 

Burr disguised himself and tried to escape to 
the Gulf, but was recognized and arrested.^ Pend- 
ing Burr's preparation and previous to Wilkinson's 

' As there has been much dispute as to the details and exact place 
of Burr's arrest, the author quotes here an extract from a private letter, 
written him while this work was in press, by Mr. Dunbar Hunt, now of 

30 449 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

disclosures attempts had been made to check the 
enterprise with criminal prosecutions, but these had 
signally failed. Nothing criminal could be shown. 
Now, however, it was thought that high treason 
had been committed and would be easy to prove. 
Hence, as Burr was taken to Richmond for trial, he 
was already regarded by most people as a criminal 
caught red-handed. 

By virtue of his office, Thomas Jefferson be- 
came virtually Burr's prosecutor. John Marshall 
was presiding judge — very fortunately for the 
prisoner. 

Federalism, in forgetfulness of Hamilton, ral- 
lied to the defense of Burr; and his trial became 
almost an attempt to convict Thomas Jefferson of 
high crimes and misdemeanors. 

The tone in which Marshall referred to the 
President, the outrageous style in which Burr's 
lawyers arraigned him, the contemptuous attitude 

New York. He (Burr) was captured on the banks of Coles Creek, Jefferson 
County, Mississippi, a few miles from its raoutii, where it empties into 
the Mississippi River. After his capture he was taken to Calviton, the 
residence of Mr. Thomas Calvit, near by, and when introduced to Mrs. 
Calvit, the old lady in her dignified manner remarked that she "would 
be proud of the honor of the acquaintance of Colonel Burr were he a 
friend to his country." 

The small frame house in which this meeting occurred was removed 
some years ago to another part of the same plantation and is now oc- 
cupied by one of the negro tenants. 

I am a native Mississippian, having lived there most of my life and 
only recently moved here. 

The foregoing statement T get from the lips of my father and 
mother. My father's name was David Hunt, whose first wife was a 
daughter of Mr. Thomas Calvit, and our home was at "Woodlawn," 
adjoining the " Calviton " plantation. 

450 



BURR'S TRIAL. JEFFERSON'S RECORD 

of Burr himself, made this celebrated trial a poi- 
soned thorn in Jefferson's side. Neither could it 
have been soothing to the President to observe how 
comfortably a suite of rooms had been fitted up for 
the distinguished prisoner, and how deferentially 
he was served by his custodians. The bouquets of 
choice flowers which were showered upon Burr 
could not have smelled sweet to Jefferson. Those 
delicate notes that were sent in by ladies fair, those 
honeyed messages, those oranges, pineapples, apri- 
cots, and raspberries — they certainly could not have 
tasted right to Jefferson. The semiroyal levees 
which Washington held as President of the re- 
public had not pleased the plain Thomas Jefferson; 
but how about those levees wiiich were being held 
in Richmond, where Virginians crowded on each 
other's heels to pay court to high treason? Wash- 
ington's banquets may have been too stately in 
their etiquette; but how about this Richmond ban- 
quet, where John Marshall, the judge, and Luther 
Martin, the prisoner's lawyer, sat down at a bril- 
liant feast with the prisoner on trial? 

Jefferson's wrath became a consuming flame. 
Almost beside himself, he railed at Burr, at Mar- 
shall, at Martin, jogging the elbow of the district 
attorney at every step, supplying him with copious 
suggestions, and exerting himself to the utmost to 
have the evidence ready. Burr's beautiful and bril- 
liant daughter came to Richmond, with Allston, of 

451 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

South Carolina, her husband; and they were both 
present at the trial. Andrew Jackson was on hand, 
delivering street harangues against Jefferson; Burr 
was a persecuted man, and Wilkinson was an in- 
fernal scoundrel. Young Winfield Scott was there, 
an eager spectator; and so was Zachary Taylor; 
so, also, was Washington Irving. 

Among the lawyers for the defense was Edmund 
Randolph, whose character had been compromised, 
but whose legal talents were indispensable. 

The leading counsel for Burr, however, was a 
volunteer, Luther Martin, a wonderful lawyer, 
whose intellect and learning were the glory, as his 
intemperance and slovenliness were the shame of 
the Maryland bar. He had offered his services, 
partly from generosity and partly from spite. The 
generosity had its origin in fellow feeling — Martin 
being a rabid Federalist. The spite grew out of the 
odious prominence which Jefferson, in the Notes of 
Virginia, had given to Colonel Cresap, the alleged 
murderer of the family of the Indian chief Logan. 
Luther Martin had married Cresap's daughter, and 
the family bore Jefferson a bitter grudge.^ 

The animosity, then, of at least five of the men 
who figured in the trial was intense; John Ran- 
dolph, of Roanoke, foreman of the grand jury; 
Thomas Jefferson, practically the prosecutor; John 

^The old age of Burr were spent in poverty and isolation, but he 
found room in his home for Luther Martin, who was penniless and who 
had become a wreck. Burr supported Martin until the latter's death. 

452 



BURR'S TRIAL. JEFFERSON'S RECORD 

Marshall, the presiding judge; Luther Martin, the 
leading lawyer for the defense; and Aaron Burr, 
the prisoner at the bar. It was a great battle. The 
attorneys who prosecuted were no match for those 
who defended, although one of those who appeared 
for the Government was William Wirt. Burr him- 
self was a great case lawyer; and Luther Martin 
had no rival, for William Pinckney, of Maryland, 
was not then devoting himself to the law. 

But even had there been a balance as between 
lawyers, the huge advantage of having Marshall on 
the bench could not have been overcome. 

Under his rulings, the Government could not 
make out a case; and the prosecution went to 
pieces. During the trial, the Chief Justice actually 
attempted to compel the presence in court, as a 
witness, of the President of the United States. Mr. 
Jefferson declined to honor the subpoena. He was 
extremely indignant at the conduct and rulings of 
the Chief Justice, but he did not call him a dog as 
Mr. William Eleroy Curtis states. It was Luther 
Martin to whom Jefferson referred as the "unprin- 
cipled Federal bulldog," who ought to be "muzzled." 



So early as November 5, 1806, the Legislature of 
Vermont invited Mr. Jefferson to become a candi- 
date for a third term. In December the State of 
Georgia joined in that request. In January, 1807, 

453 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Maryland fell into line, and then came Rhode 
Island, in February, New York and Pennsylvania 
in March, and New Jersey and North Carolina fol- 
lowed later. 

Eighty-nine electoral votes were then necessary 
to a choice, and Mr. Jefferson had already been ten- 
dered the support of safe Republican States to the 
number of 79 votes, with Virginia, South Carolina, 
Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee to hear from on the 
formal proposition of Jefferson's declared can- 
didacy. 

Apparently had he claimed a third term and 
put his friends to work he could have got it. 

At that time there was no settled prejudice, no 
unwritten law upon the subject. Washington had 
merely declined reelection, declaring no principle, 
and putting no ban upon a third term. Mr, Jeffer- 
son had originally favored a single term, and had 
stated that it was the abuse his political enemies 
heaped upon him that caused him to seek vindica- 
tion in his second election. 

As to the third term, he did not hesitate. Firmly 
and conclusively he declined to become a candi- 
date, and he proclaimed the principle, which, like 
his Monroe doctrine, has become law. He declared 
in effect that the third term was dangerous in prin- 
ciple, appealing to the lessons of history and citing 
Washington's illustrious example to support his 
position. 

454 



BURR'S TRIAL. JEFFERSON'S RECORD 

" If some termination to the service of the Chief 
Magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution, or sup- 
plied by practise, his office, nominally for years, will 
in fact become one for life; and history shows 
how easily that degenerates into an inheritance. 

" Believing that a representative government, 
responsible at short periods of election, is that 
which produces the greatest sum of happiness to 
mankind, I feel it to be a duty to do no act that shall 
essentially impair that principle.''^ 

There were other reasons why Mr. Jefferson de- 
clined reelection. He was worn out with the cares 
and the confinement of office; he felt that his mind 
was becoming impaired, and he wished to spend his 
remaining years amid the beloved scenes and com- 
panions of home. He yearned for peace, quiet, and 
Monticello. But it would be a mistake to say that 
he quit his post feeling soured, humiliated, or self- 
condemned. 

Mortified he doubtless was at seeing New Eng- 
land giving aid and comfort to the enemy, her 
newspapers flying mottoes of " Resistance to arbi- 
trary laws is duty to God," her treacherous Picker- 
ings feeding the insolence of British ministers, her 
good city of Boston adopting nullification resolu- 
tions, her judges and her preachers trumpeting re- 
bellion; but he could hug to his breast the conso- 
ling fact that three citizens out of every four 
throughout the Union loved him, believed in him, 

455 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

looked up to him as one of the great men of the 
world. The votes of the legislatures of the various 
States, as well as the addresses of public bodies 
which poured in upon him, assured him of his hold 
upon the hearts of his people. 

Above and beyond the annoyances and humilia- 
tions of the last few months of his term, his record 
of glorious achievement lived in deeds accom- 
plished, a monument more enduring than brass. Of 
this he felt assured. His work would speak for him 
when he was gone. How truly great that work was 
the small men of the hour could not know. Poster- 
ity alone could realize his full stature. Life is just 
so ordered that the miserable crab can always 
draw attention to himself by gnawing the toe of 
some Hercules. The crabs know this and the toe 
finds it out. But after all, after all, thank God! the 
great man is a Hercules and the wretched crab is 
but a crab. Only the Hercules can do the twelve 
labors; the poor crabs can just get back to their 
holes — that and that only. 

The New England preachers, editors, and judges 
\ who denounced this great man as the paid tool of 
"Bonaparte"; the pitiful Callenders and Masons 
and Cotton Mather Smiths who flung mud at him 
and bespattered him as he passed — where are they? 
Where are their living words, their imperishable 
works? What portion of the human race is hap- 
pier and better, what part of the Union stronger, 

456 



BURR'S TRIAL. JEFFERSON'S RECORD 

richer, brighter, because of their having existed? 
Who brings offerings to their shrines, who lights 
tapers at their altars, who drinks inspiration from 
any rock which they smote? Dead, dead are slan- 
ders and slanderers; dried long ago and fallen off 
the mud they flung upon the stately Virginian. 
Towering through our national history, like the 
Rocky Mountains which he brought into our re- 
public, range the greatness of his deeds. Eternal 
as the Union itself are the principles he impressed 
upon it. 

The poison of monarchy was entering the veins 
of our body politic, and he drove it out. Aristoc- 
racy had begun its intrenchments, and he leveled 
them to the ground. Militarism was about to be 
established, and he checked it. The public debt 
was being posted in permanence, and he well-nigh 
extinguished it. Hemmed in between the Missis- 
sippi and the Atlantic we were about to be con- 
demned to a national position of the third class, a 
tempting prey to stronger nations girdling us 
round about. With a sweep of the pen he spread 
our frontiers toward the sunset, never resting till 
the feet of his pioneers touched the shore of the 
Western sea. When he took the oath of office his 
country was a straggling line of seaboard settle- 
ments; when he laid down his trust he left an em- 
pire — the grandest continuous realm dedicated to 
democracy that the world had ever seen. 

457 



LIFE A^'D TIMES OF JEFFEKSON 

It is true that Federalism yet sought to wound 
him, but its refuge was the New England town, its 
power was gone forever. 

The question had onee been whether the two 
Chief Magistrates were kings or eonsuls; they 
were now knmvu to be the chief servants of 
their masters, the people. No longer a '' great 
bea^^t " who<4e self-constituted lords could bar 
them out from their own government, the masses 
were in power, and no elector dared to vote con- 
trary to the expressed will. 

The prerogative of the l*resident had once been 
stretched to give him arbitrary control of the life 
and liberty of the citizen. No such law could be 
repeated. 

The tongue and the i>eu of the citizen had once 
been shackled and prisons tilled with victims of 
tyrannical persecution. 

Arrogant Federalism could not do that again. 

Peaceably, patiently, a revolution had been 
brought about in the National Government, just as 
the same reformer had revolutionized Virginia. 
Not more surely had JetTerson found his own State 
verffinix toward feudalism and aristocracv than he 
found the nation heading toward monarchical 
methods and princiy>les. 

llis triumph for democracy in Virginia had not 
been greater than that which he won for true re- 
publicanism in the broader held of the Union. 

458 



CHAPTER XLVII 

DEBTS AND GUESTS AT MONTICELLO 

" Nobody in this world can make me so happy 
or so miserable as you. Retirement from public 
life will ere long become necessary for me. To your 
sister and yourself I look to render the evening of 
my life serene and contented. Its morning has 
been crowded with loss after loss till I have nothing 
left but you." 

In this strain Mr. Jefferson wrote to his daugh- 
ter Martha while he was minister to France. To 
his two girls he was both father and mother. He 
shared their griefs and joys; he selected their books 
and directed their studies; he watched over the de- 
velopment of their minds and their bodies; he in- 
stilled into them the wisest precepts and the purest 
principles. Down to the shoe-strings he gave his 
personal attention to their every want. Public 
demands upon his time were never so exacting as 
to shut out his daughters. When they were 
absent his long, affectionate, instructive letters 
flowed to them in almost unbroken lines. What 
were they doing? what books were they reading? 
were they keeping up their music lessons? did 

459 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

they practise dancing two hours per day? did 
they always keep busy at some useful work? did 
they wear their bonnets when they went out in the 
sun and wind? were the flowers yet in bloom? 
had the mocking-bird arrived? what were rela- 
tives, friends, and neighbors doing and saying? 
when did the bluebirds appear? when were the first 
chickens hatched? is the garden flourishing? Gos- 
sip and family matters mingle with facts concern- 
ing the gravest matters of state; and questions 
concerning certain hogsheads of tobacco are fol- 
lowed by the announcement " Maribeau is dead." 
In 1801 he tells Maria of a visit to Mount Vernon 
and of the kind inquiries which Mrs. Washington 
made after her — a letter which would seem to dis- 
prove the existence of any coolness between the two 
families. General Washington was dead; but Jef- 
ferson would hardly have been visiting the widow 
at her home in the familiar manner of friendly inter- 
course if he and Washington had been estranged. 
" Continue always to love me, and be assured that 
there is no object on earth so dear to my heart as 
your health and happiness. My tenderest affec- 
tions always hang on you. Adieu, my ever dear 
Maria." 

Running through all this tender correspondence 
the refrain is " Be good, be good; be useful; never 
be idle, always be at some work, love nature, exer- 
cise in the open air, be faithful to friends, wish no 

460 



DEBTS AND GUESTS AT MONTICELLO 

evil to enemies, do not beg for anything, do not be 
angry; above all things, be good and useful if you 
would be happy." 

" The morning of life has been crowded with loss 
after loss till I have nothing left but you; to your 
sister and yourself I look to render the evening of 
life serene and happy." 

The evening had now come, and the aged states- 
man was turning his feet homeward; but only one 
of the daughters was left to make him serene and 
contented. Maria, the " vision of beauty," too 
frail to bear up under the burdens of motherhood, 
had died in 1804 — died in the spring-time, when such 
a loss seems doubly cruel. 

It will be remembered that one of Jefferson's 
earliest friends, a boyhood favorite, the confidant 
of his first little love-affairs, was John Page of col- 
lege days. After all the shifting scenes of life, Mr. 
Page was now Governor of the Old Dominion, while 
Jefferson was President. In the time of his grief 
for the loss of his daughter, Mr. Jefferson was con- 
soled by the sympathy of his old friend and school- 
mate. Page, and Mr. Jefferson's letter of reply re- 
minds one of Edmund Burke bewailing his only son. 

" When you and I look back over the country 
over which we have passed what a field of slaughter 
does it exhibit! Where are all the friends who 
entered it with us, under all the inspiring energies 
of health and hope? But we have the traveler's 

461 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

consolation, every step shortens the distance we 
have to go; the end of the journey is in sight, the 
bed wherein we are to rest, and to rise in the midst 
of the friends we have lost. 

" My loss is great indeed. Others may lose of 
their abundance, but I, of my want, have lost even 
the half of all I had. 

" My evening prospects now hang on the slender 
thread of a single life. The hope with which I 
looked forward to the moment when I was to retire 
to that domestic comfort from which the last great 
step is to be taken is fearfully blighted." 

So it came to Mr. Jefferson as it comes to us all 
— the discrepancy between the hope and the reality, 
between the plan and the result, between what we 
ask — innocently and passionately ask — and what 
we receive. 



For more than thirty years Mr. Jefferson had 
held office, and with the exception of his four years' 
term as Vice-President, he had always spent more 
than his salary. During his presidency he had not 
seemed to be extravagant, but he rolled up a 
twenty-thousand-dollar debt, and from the bur- 
dens which came upon him with that deficit he 
never escaped. The truth is that he had some ex- 
pensive habits which he could not shake off. He 
loved to have friends around him, and this meant 

462 



DEBTS AND GUESTS AT MONTICELLO 

lavish entertainment. If the President's house was 
always open, which it was, and his cook was the 
best in town and his meals the most bountiful and 
appetizing, as they were, why should any respect- 
able citizen pay for his dinner at a fourth-rate 
tavern where the victuals and cooking were poor, 
the wine and coffee weak, the company undistin- 
guished, and the conversation dull, when he could 
enjoy the very choicest viands, companionship, and 
talk at the Executive Mansion, free of all ex- 
pense? 

The facts were undisputed and the argument 
was unanswerable. Mr. Jefferson had all the pat- 
ronage and expenses of a free hotel. 

The actual cost of the food consumed in one 
year was about |7,000. The wine bill was nearly 
$3,000. The stable bill was more than |1,000 . Serv- 
ant hire was nearly |3,000. 

Of course these expenses varied with the years, 
but they give an idea of what it cost him to live at 
Washington. To be exact on the item of wine, Mr. 
Jefferson's own figures show that he and his guests 
drank |10,855 worth of wine during his presidency. 
Besides the outlays of money, there were the serv- 
ices of slaves from Monticello and the value of pro- 
visions hauled in from his farm. 

Every year he spent hundreds of dollars for 
books and for charity, besides the sums he loaned 
and the thousands he put out on building. His 

463 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Monticello house was apparently incomplete as 
yet, for in 1801 there is an entry of more than 
|!2,000 for building, while in 1802 the sum charged 
is |3,500. It was about this time that the famous 
mansion was at length completed — a house which 
was commenced in 1769, thirty-three years be- 
fore! 

Another expensive taste of Mr. Jefferson was 
horses. It took the best to suit him, and he loved 
to have lots of them. We have already seen that he 
kept eight saddle-horses; how many carriage 
teams he kept we are not told, but his team con- 
sisted of four. On one of each pair rode a driver; he 
would never trust to a coachman and lines. The 
four which pulled his carriage while he was Presi- 
dent cost him |1,600. 

Supporting an establishment like this in Wash- 
ington, he kept up a smaller one in Virginia, for his 
daughter Martha and her children made their 
home at Monticello. Thus the outgo was enormous, 
while the only certain income was the presidential 
salary of |25,000. 

Overseers had charge of the farm, the negroes 
were not made to work, the crops were small and 
the lands had been washed away. 

The Wayles debts appear to have pursued him 
from his marriage till his death. In the year 1800 
we find him excusing himself to Thomas Mann Ran- 
dolph, who had applied to him for money, on the 

464 



DEBTS AND GUESTS AT MONTICELLO 

ground of the Wayles debts. Mr. Jefferson was not 
able to oblige his son-in-law because of the losses 
he had sustained by his father-in-law. 

After Mr. Jefferson's death there was found 
among his papers a courteous letter from the agent 
of the Wayles creditors asking about further pay- 
ments. Thus it would seem that a debt of less than 
$20,000 pursued Mr. Jefferson fifty-four years, de- 
voured about forty thousand acres of land and was 
still voicing the appetite of the horse-leech! 

The habit of setting down in a book every cent 
one pays out for stamps, shoe-strings, hair-cuttings, 
and shoe-shines does not, of itself, prove extreme 
care in larger matters. In Mr. Jefferson's case such 
a habit certainly proved nothing of the kind, for 
when he woke up to the fact that he could not get 
away from Washington at the end of his presi- 
dency without borrowing |7,000 or |8,000 the 
reality came upon him with a shock of surprise. 
Thrown into an " agony of distress," he wrote to a 
friend in Richmond, stating his mortifying situa- 
tion and asking the friend to borrow the money at 
once. Until the relief should come the anxious 
President would not be able to sleep. 

The Richmond friend hurried about, got the 
loan, and sent the money to Washington, where the 
most pressing demands were met and the President 
tranquilized. 

At the inaugural ball, it was noticed that Jeffer- 
31 465 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

son was smiling, genial, almost gay, while Madison 
wore the look of anxiety. 

Alas for these Virginians — Jefferson, Madison, 
Monroe! A lifetime of hard work for the nation, 
glorious results achieved, highest offices held, splen- 
did opportunities enjoyed, and an old age of debt, 
poverty, and financial suffering to face at the end! 

A heavy drain upon the resources of Mr. Jeffer- 
son after his retirement from public life was the 
company which came to Monticello. Nothing like 
it was ever seen even in Virginia. 

Famous the world over as a statesman, a 
scholar, an experimental farmer, an amateur scien- 
tist, an all-round philosopher, a most genial host, 
there were legions of people at home and abroad 
who wanted to see Mr. Jefferson. Nobody was 
turned away; everybody was bountifully enter- 
tained — he and his wife, child, nurse, man-servant, 
maid-servant, horse, and dog. The guest was fed 
better than he was used to at home, the mansion 
was a better house, the view was superb, the air 
salubrious, the water and the wine good. If the 
guest loved books, he found the best library in the 
land. If he loved hunting and fishing, there were 
the rivers, creeks, and woods. If solitude was his 
delight, he could stay in his own room, and have 
servants to wait upon him. If he doted on flowers, 
music, and polite conversation, he found all these 
attractions, day in and day out, at Monticello. 

466 



DEBTS AND GUESTS AT MONTICELLO 

Why should the guest be in a hurry to leave? 
Why not spend the summer right there? He did. 
He spent the summer, was asked to come back next 
summer, and he did so. It became the regular out- 
ing place for some of the nicest people in America. 
Some stayed by the week, some by the month. 
Some came singly, some with retinues. Sometimes 
a whole family would move in and spend several 
months. Fifty guests were known to spend the 
night there at one time. To feed these caravans, to 
prepare extra beds, bedding, furniture, washing, 
ironing, etc., required everything produced at 
Monticello, and more besides. The overseers had 
to haul corn and meat from other farms to supply 
the shortage. Some of these visitors were rela- 
tives, many were friends, and most of them were 
worthy people; but the nuisance grew with indul- 
gence until the abuse was intolerable. Professional 
tourists, idle gad-abouts, promiscuous sight-seers, 
thronged his drives, lined his terraces, made them- 
selves at home on his lawn, followed him into his 
groves and gardens, peeped at him through the 
door, kept guard on him through the window. The 
inquisitive female who punches things with her 
parasol came, of course; and she poked out a pane 
of glass to get a better view of Mr. Jefferson in his 
room — the lion in his cage. 

The ardent parent who points his instructive 
finger at things for the benefit of his little boy, and 

467 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

then holds up the little boy so that he may get a 
better look, was there also; and Mr. Jefferson, sit- 
ting on his portico of an evening, was expected to 
sit still and look cheerful while little boys and 
instructive parents were mentally taking his 
photograph. 

Between his dining-room and study was the hall- 
way, or passage, and strange ladies and gentlemen 
would station themselves there to catch a glimpse 
of him as he went to dinner. Consulting their 
watches from time to time as people do in connec- 
tion with schedules and circus announcements, they 
would await the inevitable hour when the sage 
would have to emerge or starve; and then as he 
made his way to the dining-room he would be fol- 
lowed by that candid style of comment so charac- 
teristic of some folks when they are in other folks' 
houses. 

Rank imposes obligations? 

Sometimes. But Virginia hospitality imposed 
its obligation at all times. Mr. Jefferson might re- 
peal primogeniture and entails — he dared not lay 
his hand upon the venerable tyranny of custom 
which turned his dwelling into a promiscuous free 
hotel. The honor of Virginia was at stake — Vir- 
ginia hospitality must not be shamed in him. There 
was no privacy possible under such circumstances. 
The companionship of his family and his real 
friends could not be enjoyed. Uninterrupted read- 

468 



DEBTS AND GUESTS AT MONTICELLO 

ing, quiet study, were out of the question. The 
place, crowded with miscellaneous men, women, 
children, servants, dogs, horses, was no longer a 
home for anybody. The owner of the house was 
simply a boarder in a crowded inn, where all the 
others had a good time at his expense. In other 
words, he had spent thirty years and a fortune in 
preparing a place to live at, and now it was ren- 
dered worse than useless because Virginia hospi- 
tality and his own good nature would not allow him 
to act upon the principle that his private dwelling 
had been built for himself. Once a year he had to 
fairly run away from Monticello, leaving it all to 
overseers, negroes, and company, while he sought a 
little rest at Poplar Forest, ninety miles away. 
Here he had built another mansion, at the close of 
his presidency (regardless of those debts), and on 
this remote plantation he found the rest, recre- 
ation, and privacy which had become impossible at 
Monticello. 

Mr. Jefferson never lost affectionate interest in 
any member of his family. They were all welcome 
to his house, had free access to his purse, and a 
warm place in his heart. Every year one of his car- 
riages would be sent down into Roanoke County to 
bring his sister, Mrs. Anne Marks, to Monticello, 
where she spent the months of summer. 



469 



CHAPTER XLVIII 

THE WAR OF 1812 

The Federalist school of historians has been 
very severe on Jefferson and Madison because of 
the War of 1812. The harshest words of the vocabu- 
lary have been applied to them; and Mr. Theodore 
Roosevelt has been intemperate enough to say that 
Mr. Jefferson " was perhaps the most incapable Ex- 
ecutive that ever filled the presidential chair." ^ 

Living in New England, Woodrow Wilson 
catches the color of the leaf upon which he feeds; 
and he, also, raises his Southern voice in condemna- 
tion of Mr. Jefferson, virtually charging him with 
responsibility for the War of 1812. " Mr. Jefferson 
had become deeply entangled " (with France) " be- 
yond hope of extrication, had become the professed 
friend of France," etc. " Friendly dealings with 
England had been given up," etc. 

Was ever the truth of history so distorted? Did 
Thomas Jefferson really provoke patient England 
into the War of 1812 by giving to her the cold 
shoulder, while to France he gave warm embraces? 
Had our dealings with Great Britain been friendly 

» Roosevelt's Naval War of 1812, vol. xi, p. 198. 
470 



TlIK WAR OF IHl'A 

until our 'MiiohI, incjipabN' KxecuUve " outorod 
upon llic oriicc? 

'I'hc lilcrul fjK-ls Jirc lli;il, our n'lalioMH (o 1mi^- 
land and to I^'rancc IukJ IxM-n fixed bclorc Mr. d<'lT<'r- 
Kon was (dcctcd, and Uial lie (Ji<J not, chaD^c lln'iri. 
Wasliinj^ton had made the treaty with (ircat Brit- 
ain; Adams had made tliat with Franco. Fricn^Jly 
ministers rc|)/'<'serit in^ holh these jxnvers wen' at 
Washington when Jefferson became J'resicJcnt, an<l 
they remained. 

In the purchase of Louisiana he had not en- 
tangled himself with Najxdeon at all. In his efforts 
to buy Florida from Spain he askc*] tjjc *' Liood 
offices" of r'rance because it h;i(] Ix-cn undcrsf ood 
that they would b<' given. \af>oleon refused to say 
a word in our behalf, and th(?re the matter ended. 
What was it that Jefferson liad done that had car- 
ried him " beyond the hope of extrication " ? 

As to England, the facts are equally clear. Mr. 
Jefferson exhausted every effort from first to last 
to secure lionorable treaty relations after the ex- 
piration of the Jay treaty; and he was «o patient, so 
persistent, so earnestly conciliatory, that nothing 
drove him to break with England. Hhe might seize 
our merchantmen, impress our sailors, kill citizens 
in our harbors, as at New York; riddle a war-vessel 
and bloody its deck, as at the entrance of the Chesa- 
peake; and still the President strove for peace. 
Josiah Quincy flung at him the taunt in Congress 

471 



, LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

that " this administration could not be kicked into 
war " with Great Britain. 

Yet Woodrow Wilson discovers that Jefferson 
broke off friendly dealings with England and 
brought on the war by going so far in friendship to 
France that he was " beyond hope of extrication." 

Where rests the blame for the war with Great 
Britain? It must have been on her, for she repealed 
the orders in Council, stopped the impressment of 
seamen, recognized the principle that " free ships 
make free goods " — the points at issue between 
us. 

Do Jefferson and Madison deserve the wholesale 
\/ abuse they get from the Federalist school of his- 
torians — abuse based upon the assertion that the 
country was not put in state of defense? 

The President alone can not prepare a republic 
for war. He must be supported by Congress and 
the country. It was the misfortune of both Jeffer- 
son and Madison not to have that support. 

The greatest weakness in the position of these 
two Presidents at this crisis was New England. 
That great section was honeycombed with con- 
spiracy and the impulse toward secession. Presi- 
dents and presidential policies were denounced in 
pulpits, newspapers, town meetings, legislatures, 
and gubernatorial proclamations. Treasonable 
correspondence with Great Britain was kept up, 
her representatives were encouraged by New Eng- 

472 



THE WAR OF 1812 

land leaders to resist all of the presidential over- 
tures for honorable adjustment, signal-lights blazed 
along her coasts giving friendly notice to British 
ships. 

Thus these two Presidents were placed in the 
most embarrassing position ever occupied by Amer- 
ican Presidents; they had to cope at the same time 
with sedition at home and invasion abroad. 

This great indisputable fact not only accounts 
for the lack of executive vigor, but explains also 
the secret of the disasters which befell our arms. 
The attitude of New England demoralized the sol- 
diers in the ranks. How could they put heart in the 
fight when one great portion of the national family 
was denouncing the war as infamous, tolling the 
bells, hanging out public signs of mourning, holding 
communications with the enemy, and threatening 
secession from the Union? 

For instance, there was General Hull, of Con- 
necticut, who had fought bravely in the Revolution- 
ary War. Placed inside the fort at Detroit, the 
safety of the entire Northwest depended upon his 
maintenance of his post, yet when an army of 
British and Indians, no larger than his own, came 
up on the outside of the works and demanded his 
surrender, he ran up the cowardly white flag, with- 
out firing a shot. We not only lost the Northwest 
by this shameful capitulation, but its demoralizing 
influence was beyond all calculation. 

473 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

What was the matter with officers and men? 
Why had the American soldier so suddenly lost his 
luck and his pluck? 

Mr. Roosevelt explains it all by saying that the 
troops had not been drilled. Jefferson and Madi- 
son had been neglecting the drilling. Did soldiers 
inside of a fort need drilling to hold it against 
British and Indians outside? Could discipline and 
experience do any good where the veteran general 
of the Revolutionary War sat on the ground with 
tobacco juice oozing down his chin, refusing to 
give the order to fight? 

Was the young hero, George Croghan — an Irish- 
American^ — helped by drilled soldiers when with 160 
men he held Fort Stephenson against an army of 
British and Indians?^ Were the 28 Georgians who, 
under William Cone, drove away from the St. 
Mary's River 27 barge-loads of British regulars 
under General Prevost, killing 180 and wounding 
as many — were they drilled soldiers? 

Who drilled the riflemen who rode to King's 
Mountain? 

No sane man underrates the value of drill and 
discipline, but some of the defeats of the War of 
1812 were so inexcusable that they challenge in- 
quiry into causes. Volunteer soldiers did great 

* Croghan was the nephew of George Rogers Clark. He had been 
ordered by his superior officer to evacuate the fqrt, but i-efused — 
begging and Anally getting leave to stay and fight. 

474 



THE WAR OF 1812 

things during our Revolution, during our Indian 
wars, and during the late civil war. 

What, then, was the secret of the disasters of 
our land forces of the War of 1812? More than any- 
thing else, it was the lack of unity of spirit and of 
purpose. 

For the American volunteer had done sublime 
things, and it was in him to do them yet. All that 
he needed was a leader who put his heart into the 
fight, and who meant to win or die. 

And at last we found him. While New England 
delegates were getting ready to travel to Hartford 
to hold the first secession convention ever held on 
this continent, the volunteers of the South were 
tramping along the country roads as fast as they 
could go — to meet face to face the trained, sea- 
soned, thoroughly drilled soldiers of Great Britain 
— they who had chased the eagles of Napoleon from 
every battle-field in Spain. And at New Orleans 
these volunteers whom Jefferson and Madison had 
not drilled, but whom Andrew Jackson knew how 
to lead, gave to Great Britain that crushing defeat 
from which is to be dated the time when she first 
began to treat us with the respect which the strong 
show to the strong — the brave to the brave. 

Mr. Roosevelt's War of 1812 was written in 1882. 
At that time it may have been thought by military 
experts that the day of the militia, the untrained 
volunteers, was eternally over. 

475 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

It was aftet^ 1882 that the undrilled farmers of 
South Africa taxed the utmost strength of the 
world's greatest Empire and exhausted themselves 
beating the British. It was after 1882 that Theo- 
dore Roosevelt took his undrilled volunteers, the 
Rough Riders, and led them to victory and immor- 
tality at San Juan. 



The speed of the fleet being that of the slowest 
vessel, the strength of the chain being that of the 
weakest link, Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Madison 
were both awfully weighed down by the disunion 
movements in the richest, best educated, most re- 
ligious, and best organized section of the Union. 

Historians who will not grant them allowance 
for this terrible weakness in their position are mere 
partizans — not historians. How the disloyal atti- 
tude of New England affected Mr. Madison let Will- 
iam Wirt tell. He went on a visit to Washington 
just after the British raid. In a letter to his wife, 
he describes the ruins and desolation of the city; 
he visited the remnants of the White House, the 
smoke-blackened bare walls, without roof, cracked 
and ready to fall. He called on the President. 
" He looks miserably shattered and wobegone. 
In short he looked heart-broken. His mind is full 
of the New England sedition." Mr. Madison intro- 
duced the subject, expressed his fears that New 

476 



THE WAR OF 1812 

England would secede, and make common cause 
with Great Britain. Mr. Wirt tried to calm Ms ap- 
prehensions upon that subject but without success. 
" His mind and heart were full of the subject." 

Heart-broken by the conduct of New England! 

If that was the feeling of the President, what 
must have been the spirit of the New England 
troops — to say nothing of the others? Washington 
had been looted, the public buildings wrecked, an 
army of 7,000 put to flight by the mere appearance 
of the British, who numbered 5,000.^ The Presi- 
dent, his wife, the Cabinet, Congress — all had to fly 
the Capitol. In a little hut in the Virginia woods 
Mr. Madison spent a night in misery while his wife 
continued her retreat. Fugitives from Washington 
insulted him as they fled — as the author of their 
misfortunes. In Hampton it was reported that the 
British had committed every outrage known to war 
and had invited the negroes to join them in the 
atrocities. Baltimore was more fortunate. The 
British met bloody repulse — their commander, Gen- 
eral Ross, being among the slain. ^ 

Writing to William Cary Nicholas, Mr. Madison 

^ On the way up the Potomac when the British vessels were passing 
Mount Vernon the officers stood on deck with their hats off — a silent 
tribute to George Washington. 

* Readers will remember that Francis S. Key had been sent on board 
a British ship to negotiate an exchange of prisoners, that he was de- 
tained through the bombardment, and that next morning when he saw 
the Stars and Stripes still floating above Fort McHenry he wrote The 
Star-Spangled Banner under the inspiration of his joy. 

477 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

says: "You are not mistaken in viewing the con- 
duct of the Eastern States as the source of our 
greatest difficulties in carrying on the war; as it 
certainly is the greatest, if not the sole inducement 
to the enemy to persevere in it." 

This was the truth — the simple, ruinous truth. 
New England not only weakened the republic in 
the hour of distress, but strengthened the enemy. 
Stephen Decatur blockaded in New London, Con- 
necticut, by a superior fleet of British, and attempt- 
ing to steal out to sea on a dark night, was be- 
trayed by his own countrymen, who displayed blue 
lights to warn the English ships. 

Heart-broken by the treason of his people and 
fearful of a disruption of the Union, Mr. Madison 
was forced to consent to a peace which left un- 
settled the issues in dispute. But for Jackson's 
victory at New Orleans, the War of 1812 would 
have been a remembrance to excite shame rather 
than pride. 

Due to Jefferson's " criminal folly " in not pre- 
paring the country, says Mr. Roosevelt. " Criminal 
folly " is a term which might better be applied to 
the Congress which would not supply the sinews of 
war and to the course of that great section which 
divided the House against itself. The one bright 
spot on our war record from the first was our navy. 
Whose " criminal folly " made that navy efficient, 
gave it a taste of service and of victory? Thomas 

478 



THE WAR OF 1812 

Jefferson did it by declaring war upon our " great 
and magnanimous friend," tlie "• Barbarj pirate." 

Instead of sending tribute and letters of flat- 
tery, Jefferson sent war-ships. Dale, Bainbridge, 
Decatur, made the Mediterranean the training- 
ground for the young American navy, exercised it 
in actual battle, strengthened it on the strong wine 
of victory, and thus made it ready for the War of 
1812. That this was done, that we fought the Mo- 
hammedans rather than continue to pay them, that 
we had a navy which had learned how to fight and 
how to win, was due to the timid, incapable Execu- 
tive, Thomas Jefferson. 

The arm which can not be improvised is the 
navy, and the glory of the War of 1812 was won on 
the sea. Perry, McDonough, Decatur, Hull, Law- 
rence, are names Americans will ever honor. 

So it would seem that somebody had been 
making naval preparations for war. To the impar- 
tial student it will also appear that what the army 
most needed was generals who were willing to fight 
and knew how, and a spirit of determination in the 
troops. 

The city of Baltimore w^as in no very good condi- 
tion to resist the British, and there was talk in the 
Council of capitulation. The venerable John Eager 
Howard rose with all of his revolutionary heroism 
aflame, and cried: 

" I have as much property in this city as any one 
479 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

man, and I have five sons in the army — but sooner 
than surrender to the British I will sacrifice my 
property and see my sons in their graves." 

One man like this inspires a v^hole community, 
becomes a tower of strength to the weak, a beacon 
light to the doubtful, a bugle-blast to the wavering. 

To make the salvation of a nation depend upon 
drill-sergeants and West Point regulations is the 
veriest nonsense that was ever put in a book — the 
mental soap-bubble of rampant militarism. 



480 



CHAPTER XLIX 



RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS 



One day a grandchild of Mr. Jefferson asked 
him why he would not state his religious convic- 
tions, he replied: 

" If I inform you of mine, they will influence 
yours — I will not take the responsibility of direct- 
ing any one's views on the subject." 

In his letters, he enters so frankly into his be- 
liefs that nothing is left to conjecture. He believed 
in God — one, not three. 

He believed in a future life in which we should 
know those whom we had known here. He be- 
lieved that religion consisted in being good and 
doing good. 

He believed in a benevolent design in creation. 
If he can be classed with any church at all, he was 
a Unitarian. He was certainly not more orthodox 
than that. In one of his letters he calls himself a 
materialist, contrasting himself with Christ, who 
was a spiritualist. He rejected the Trinity, the di- 
vinity of Christ, and the Holy Ghost. 

He classed Jesus with Socrates and other great 
teachers, regretting that he wrote nothing, and 
33 481 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

that we have to take so much of his doctrine on 
hearsay. 

He (Jesus) had no one to write for him as Soc- 
rates and Epictetus had, but, on the contrary, the 
learned men of his country were all against him for 
fear that his teachings might undermine their 
power and riches. His doctrines therefore fell to 
ignorant men, who wrote from memory long after 
the transactions had passed. 

Notwithstanding these disadvantages, Jesus 
presented a system of morals which if filled up in 
the spirit of the rich fragments he left us would 
be the most perfect and sublime that has ever been 
taught by man. Whether Mr. Jefferson was ac- 
quainted with the system of morals taught among 
the Hindus long before the time of Jesus nowhere 
appears. 

It would seem that he compared the system of 
Jesus with the moral teachings of the Jews, the 
Romans, and the Greeks — not with those of ancient 
Egypt or of India. 

He says that Jesus, like other reformers who 
try to benefit mankind, fell a victim to the jealousy 
and combination of the altar and the throne. 
Hence he did not reach the full maturity and energy 
of his reasoning faculties, and his doctrines were 
defective as a whole. 

What he did say has come down to us mutilated, 
misstated, and often unintelligible. 

482 



RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS 

These fragmentary doctrines have been still 
more disfigured by the corruptions of schismatizing 
followers who have found an interest in perverting 
the simple doctrines he taught, frittering them into 
subtleties, obscuring them with jargon until they 
have caused good men to reject the whole in dis- 
gust, and to view Jesus himself as an impostor. He 
contended that it was the priest — not Jesus him- 
self — who put forward the claims that his origin 
was miraculous and divine. He read the Bible just 
as he read Euripides, ^schylus, or Xenophon. 
From the New Testament he made the volume 
called Jefferson's Eible, which contains the life 
and teachings of Christ, omitting everything about 
his miraculous birth and resurrection. 

In writing to a friend about this little book Mr. 
Jefferson regretted that he did not have time to 
prepare a similar volume from the teachings of 
Epicurus — a philosopher whom he defends against 
Cicero and the Stoics. Writing to the son of his 
dearest friend, Dabney Carr, he tells this young 
man, his nephew, to put the Bible on a par with 
Livy and Tacitus, to read the one just as he would 
the others; and by inference as plain as inference 
can be, advises him to reject the story that Joshua 
made the sun stand still, and that Christ was the 
son of God, born of a Virgin, who reversed all the 
laws of nature and ascended bodily into heaven. 
He tells his young nephew that when he reads of a 

483 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

miracle in the Bible he ought to class it with the 
showers of blood and the statues and animals which 
in the books of Livy and Tacitus are made to speak. 
In other letters he charges in effect that the early 
founders of the Christian Church borrowed the idea 
of the Trinity from the Roman Cerberus, which had 
one body and three heads. Calvin's creed excited 
his especial horror; and his language was never 
more violent than when denouncing it. 

But the doctrine of the Trinity aroused his in- 
dignation also because it compelled the individual 
to take leave of his senses. He thought that to 
compel a sane person to declare that he believed 
three to be one, and one to be three, was a priestly 
triumph over common sense which was degrading 
to the human race. 

In 1822 he wrote, " I trust there is not a young 
man now living in the United States who will not 
die a Unitarian." 

And in his letter to Pickering he speaks glow- 
ingly of what might result if we could get back to 
the pure and simple doctrine of Jesus — knocking 
down artificial scaffolding of the Trinitarians and 
doing away with their incomprehensible jargon 
that three are one and one are three. He said 
that the Apocalypse was the ravings of a ma- 
niac. Nobody could possibly understand what it 
meant. 

But what theologian ever wrote a more beauti- 
484 



RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS 

f ul letter than this, which the great Deist left for his 
little namesake, Thomas Jefferson Smith: 

" This letter will, to you, be as one from the 
dead. The writer will be in his grave before you 
can weigh its counsel. Adore God. Reverence 
and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as 
yourself and your country more than yourself. Be 
just. Be true. Murmur not of the ways of Provi- 
dence. 

" So shall the life into which you have entered 
be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. 
And if to the dead it be permitted to care for the 
things of this world, every action of your life will 
be under my regard." 

This was written the year before he died. 

To Peter Carr, son of Dabney Carr, he wrote: 

" Give up money, give up fame, give up science, 
give up earth itself, and all it contains, rather than 
do an immoral act." 



Mr. Jefferson had always taken a deep interest 
in guiding young men in their reading, their studies, 
and their physical exercises. Even when he himself 
had barely finished his collegiate course parents 
sought his advice as to the education of their boys. 
In this way he mapped out a program for weakly 
little James Madison which came near making a 
gap in the Madison family. James could not carry 

485 



l\ 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

the load which the strength of Thomas Jefferson 
shouldered with ease. To his two daughters and the 
Carr children, and then to his own grandchildren, 
Mr. Jefferson wrote line upon line and precept upon 
precept for three generations, and sounder lessons 
for the young it would be hard to find. 

His system may be summed up as follows: 
Exercise in the open air, walking long distances 
being preferable to all other forms. Violent exer- 
cises, such as games of ball, he condemned. Bodily 
health is essential to good spirits and to a sound 
mind. Never be idle; let each hour of the day be 
occupied with something useful. 

Do not sit up late at night; study and work in 
the daytime. Rise early and go to bed early. Avoid 
novel reading and cultivate the companionship of 
good books. Never tell a lie or stoop to a mean act. 
Be kind to every living creature. Speak no evil of 
any one. Be good, adore God, be loyal to friends, 
and love your country better than yourself. Take 
hold of things by the smooth handle; avoid dis- 
putes; do not turn pleasant conversation into 
heated argument. Too much speaking is not best. 
Washington and Franklin rarely made speeches, 
and never spoke longer than ten minutes — and then 
to the main point only. Never put off till to-morrow 
what you can do to-day. Never spend your money 
before you have it. Never buy what you do not 
need because it is cheap. Pride costs more than 

486 



4 RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS 

hunger, thirst, and cold. We never repent of having 
eaten too little. Never borrow trouble. 



In his old age it was natural that his interest in 
the young should increase. From all parts of the 
country applications came to him to advise stu- 
dents who appreciated the value of his wisdom. 
Nothing pleased him better than to give ambitious 
boys the benefit of his experience, and to whet their 
appetite for knowledge. Thus disciples gathered 
about him — young men who would secure board in 
Charlottesville and come to Monticello to use his 
library. 

Education! Education! The word rings 
throughout the long life of this great statesman. 
Democracy must spread among the masses the 
benefits of education; the rich must not be allowed 
to monopolize so vast a power. 

In the long run the mind rules, ideas prevail, 
the thinker is king. If democracy is to stand its 
ground against its ancient eternal foes, it must 
read, it must think, it must knoiv! 

When a mere youth in service he had endeav- 
ored to adopt a thorous^h system of state educa- 
tion. He had failed utterly, but he did not sur- 
render the purpose. With patient stubbornness he 
held on to the idea all his life, and never missed a 
chance to win converts to it. 

487 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Therefore it was an appropriate rounding out of 
his bequest to posterity that he should give his last 
years to founding the University of Virginia. It 
was the old workman's last job and one of his best. 
Had he done for mankind nothing more his name 
would have won honorable mention among those 
who have benefited the human race. What a chap- 
ter of heroic endeavor and success it is! The aged, 
feeble, debt-ridden man giving a thousand dollars, 
giving all of his influence, experience, and genius, 
using every act of diplomacy with factions, unwill- 
ing legislatures, smoothing the sharp corners of 
local prejudice and sectarian jealousy; giving his 
thought, time, and labor to every detail of the build- 
ing and equipment; laboring to overcome inertia, 
ignorance, crass stupidity; submitting to many 
slights, snubs, rebuffs, rebukes, misrepresentations, 
but holding on steadily year by year until at last 
the institution is there, soaring above all obstacles 
and opposition, a fixed fact, a glorious fact, a splen- 
did final triumph to this grand old warrior in the 
battles of human progress. 

It was the first thoroughly modern school in 
America. 

This Benjamin of his old age — his university — 
came near being wrecked by his own nephew, a boy 
whom he had been steeping in sage counsels for ten 
years. A mutinous spirit grew among the students 
until at length discipline was at an end and riot 

488 



RELIGIOUS CONVICTIONS 

took the place of order. The faculty was helpless. 
Jefferson and Madison hurried to the scene, spoke 
to the students with all the earnestness such a 
crisis aroused in these aged ex-Presidents, and suc- 
ceeded in quelling the disturbance. When Mr. Jef- 
ferson discovered that his own nephew had come so 
near ruining the institution which had cost him so 
much, and upon which his hopes were so fondly 
fixed, his anger was great and his words harsh. 
This nephew and other ringleaders were expelled. 



489 



CHAPTER L 

POLITICAL OPINIONS 

In the author's Napoleon an account is given of 
the royalist reaction which followed Waterloo. It 
is there shown how the Kings first used the people 
against the great Emperor, and then reensnared, 
reenslaved the credulous people. In Spain, Italy, 
and Germany the uprising against Napoleon had 
been made a popular movement by promises of con- 
stitutions and democratic institutions. The tyrant 
once down and securely caged at St. Helena, the 
people were fettered hand and foot, tongue and 
brain. The Church, the State, the priest, the sol- 
dier, the dungeon, the rack, political and religious 
persecution in their full ferocity, fell upon the 
masses and crushed every effort at reform. 

As Dr. Charles B. Spahr has shown in his 
Present Distribution of Wealth, it was during the 
long Napoleonic struggle that the little band of 
English aristocrats gathered up four-fifths of the 
real estate in Great Britain — a process which ex- 
plains why the landlords were opposed to peace. 

The anti-democratic league of European kings 
became known as the Holy Alliance. It became 

490 



POLITICAL OPINIONS 

their sacred mission on earth to put down every 
kind of popular movement and to reestablish the 
good old absolutism of Church and State. 

Having crushed, brutally and bloodily, every 
effort of the people to resist them in the Old World, 
their eyes turned to the New. 

The South American colonies of Spain had 
taken advantage of the opportunities Napoleon 
gave them to throw off the Bourbon yoke. They 
had struck for independence as we had done. 

The Holy Alliance determined to drive back 
these South American republics into the clutches 
of Spain. 

For commercial and political reasons. Great 
Britain did not favor this design of the Holy Alli- 
ance, and proposed to us a joint resistance to it. 

James Monroe was President, and the impor- 
tant issues involved prompted him to seek advice 
from abler men than himself. He turned to Thomas 
Jefferson and James Madison. 

The year was 1823, the sage of Monticello was 
eighty years old, and yet his letter to James Mon- 
roe rings like a battle-ax on the iron casque of a foe. 
The old-time fire w^as not quenched nor the zeal 
abated. 

Listen to the grand old man: 

" The question presented by the letters you have 
sent me is the most momentous which has been 
offered to my contemplation since the Declaration 

491 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

of Independence. That made us a nation; this sets 
our compass and points the course which we are to 
steer through the ocean of time. Our first and fun- 
damental maxim should be never to entangle our- 
selves in the broils of Europe. Our second, never 
to suffer Europe to intermeddle with cis-Atlantic 
affairs. 

" America, North and South, has interests dis- 
tinct from those of Europe. She should therefore 
have a system of her own. 

" While Europe is laboring to become the 
domicile of despotism, our endeavor should surely 
be to make our hemisphere the domicile of free- 
dom." 

He proceeds to argue in favor of the English al- 
liance for the purpose proposed. He also states 
that the United States ought to acquire Cuba. But 
waiving that for the time, he declares that a decla- 
ration should be issued to the effect that we would 
" oppose with all our means, the forcible interposi- 
tion of any other power, as auxiliary, stipendiary, 
or under any other form or pretext, and more espe- 
cially their transfer to any other power by conquest 
cession or acquisition in any other way." 

The letter bears date October 24, 1823, and is 
the first full and explicit setting forth of the Mon- 
roe doctrine. 

Afterward, in Monroe's Cabinet, John Quincy 
Adams, as the historian McMaster claims, 

492 



POLITICAL OPINIONS 

added the further clause, " that land upon this con- 
tinent was no longer subject to European coloni- 
zation." 

There was nothing added, because Jefferson's 
language covered every possible form of ac- 
quisition. 

He distinctly said that the United States should 
resist with all our means the acquisition of terri- 
tory here in any shape or form whatever by a for- 
eign power. 

Europe should not be allowed to get territory 
on this side " under any form or pretext " or by 
conquest cession or acquisition, " or in any other 
way." If that language did not cover every way in 
which territory could be acquired what words 
would have done so? 

When John Quincy Adams added the word 
" colonize " he simply supplied a specification 
which had already been covered by the general 
declaration. 

Mr. Madison's letter on the same subject ad- 
vises President Monroe to agree to the proposed 
British alliance for the purpose of sustaining the 
South American states in their independence, but 
it takes no such bold stand for the general principle 
that Europe must " hands off " the New World, as 
does the letter of Mr. Jefferson. 

In the presidential message, December, 182-3, 
President Monroe followed the counsel of Mr. Jeffer- 

493 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

son, and proclaimed what is now known as the Mon- 
roe doctrine. 

Under this celebrated new law in the inter- 
national code, the South American republics were 
preserved then, Mexico rescued in the sixties, and 
Venezuela saved from dismemberment in 1895. 



There has been so much debate concerning Mr. 
Jefferson's financial views that it may be proper to 
state them briefly. He was a bimetalist, believing 
in the full equal use of both gold and silver. 

In 1806 he ordered the mint to cease coining the 
silver dollar. The silver in this coin being worth 
more than a dollar, measured by gold, exporters 
sent it abroad to get the profit — hence as fast as 
the silver dollars left the mints they became mer- 
chandise to be shipped away from the country. 
The law authorizing the coinage was neither re- 
pealed nor amended. The mint officers were simply 
directed to use the silver bullion in the coining of 
other kinds of silver money, to wit, half-dollars, 
quarter-dollars, dimes, and half-dimes. 

These smaller silver coins, like the silver dollar, 
continued to be full legal tender. The mint con- 
tinued to coin them, so that between the years 1792 
to 1853 the output was $77,000,000— not counting 
three-cent silver pieces. In silver dollars only 18,- 
000,000 were coined from 1792 to 1873. 

494 



POLITICAL OPINIONS 

Ten days before closing the mint to the silver 
dollar, Mr. Jefferson had approved an act of Con- 
gress which gave the legal-tender quality to all 
foreign gold and silver coins. The Spanish milled 
dollar was already a legal tender. 

He not only had absolute confidence in the Gov- 
ernment to create its own paper currency independ- 
ent of banks, but he contended that in no case had 
the paper money of any of the colonies failed to 
keep on a par with gold and silver when such colo- 
nies provided, at the same time the paper was is- 
sued, a tax to redeem it. He gave as a reason why 
the Continental currency failed the want of power 
in Congress to provide for its redemption. Another 
reason was that the Continental notes were not 
money; they were not legal tender, and they only 
gave to the holder the right to go to the treasury 
and swap paper for coin — if the coin was there. 
As the coin never was there, the paper was only 
paper. 

" Rag money " is the favorite sneer of the aca- 
demic historian, yet the very book he writes is paid 
for with rag money, whose virtue and credit is 
based upon another rag. The Government's bond is 
a rag, the national banker's note issued on the bond 
is a rag — but how glad the academic historian is to 
get it! 

Suppose the Government should put the banker 
aside, call in the bond, and issue the note itself, 

495 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

putting behind it the same law and credit which 
upholds the bond and the banker's note, would the 
note of the Government be less valuable than the 
note of the banker? 

Mr. Jefferson thought not. So will every other 
citizen who will consent to use his own eyes, his 
own brain. 

Another principle with Mr. Jefferson was that 
legislation should encourage the equitable distri- 
bution of wealth. The growth of excessive for- 
tunes should be discouraged. Taxation should ex- 
empt all below a certain limit, and upon the larger 
properties the tax should be assessed by a geomet- 
rical ratio, the tax growing heavier as the property 
grew larger. Legislators could not invent too many 
devices for subdividing property, and thus pre- 
venting the misery which flows from enormous in- 
equality. 



A few months before he died Mr. Jefferson wrote 
a strong letter to William B. Giles, denouncing the 
tendency of the General Government to usurp the 
reserved rights of the States. Such a consolidation 
of powers he viewed with extreme alarm. The 
manner in which Congress, by means of tariff regu- 
lations, took the money out of the pockets of the 
agriculturist and gave it to the manufacturer, he 
considered a shameful violation of the Constitution. 

496 



POLITICAL OPINIONS 

The construction which had been put upon the 
'' general welfare "' clause made the remainder of 
the instrument blank paper. Should the issue 
come between the two evils — dissolution of the 
Union or submission to a government of unlimited 
powers, there could be no hesitation in choosing 
the former as the smaller of the two evils. To this 
desperate counsel had the steady increase of Fed- 
eral aggressions driven so conservative a states- 
man! 

The manner in which the agricultural States 
were being systematically plundered by the manu- 
facturers under forms of law were as apparent to 
him then as they became to McDuffle, Calhoun, 
and Stephens when the cruel results of Federal 
favoritism had fully developed. 

Many of Mr. Jefferson's declarations prior to 
1825 can be quoted in favor of moderate encourage- 
ment of infant industries until such infants could 
get some of the strength of life in them; but his 
latest deliverance upon that subject was in Decem- 
ber, 1825, and was made in the light of the tariff 
system as it then stood. Realizing the trend of this 
legislation, it was Mr. Jefferson's final and delib- 
erate opinion that it would be better to dissolve the 
Union than to submit to a government which recog- 
nized no limits to its powers and no restraints of 
justice or shame in building up certain classes and 

sections at the expense of others. 
33 497 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Mr. Jefferson believed that economy was one of 
the greatest virtues of a republican government, 
and that a public debt was one of the greatest 
dangers to be feared. He considered a navy needful 
to our safety, but condemned the idea that we 
should have a navy as large as those of the leading 
European nations. Such a policy would " pull on 
our heads that load of military expenses which 
makes the European laborer go supperless to bed." 
He never ceased to preach against standing armies, 
and to insist that a well-organized militia was suffi- 
cient for every national need. 

He believed that home manufactures should 
be encouraged to the extent of our own con- 
sumption of everything of which we raise the raw 
material. 

In a Report on Commerce, made in 1793, Mr. 
Jefferson fully discussed and favored the policy of 
reciprocity which he had previously suggested in a 
letter written from Paris, in 1785, to James Monroe. 
The late James G. Blaine's name is so prominently 
connected with reciprocity that there are many 
who give him credit for originating the doctrine. 
The basic principles upon which that policy is 
founded are set forth clearly in these writings of 
Jefferson. 

He believed in the income tax, progressively in- 
creasing as the income increased. He believed that 
the earth belonged to the living, not to the dead, 

498 



POLITICAL OPINIONS 

and that each generation should enjoy only the use 
of the land. He denied that one generation had the 
just right to bind succeeding generations. It was 
on this principle that he opposed entailed estates 
and denounced perpetual national debts. Unfet- 
ter the law with the death of each life owner, 
and " let each generation pay its own debt as it 
goes." 

He opposed the appointment of women to office, 
and thought the whole world would be gainer if 
commerce enjoyed perfect freedom. He declared 
that we should not meddle with European affairs, 
nor allow Europe to intermeddle with affairs on 
this side. 

" World-mission " bombast apparently had not 
entered his poor, unprogressive head. 

The equal rights of man and the happiness of 
every individual he believed to be the only legiti- 
mate objects of government. So far from being a 
monomaniac on the subject of gold or silver as 
standards of value, he declared that a fixed quantity 
of wheat would be in most countries the best per- 
manent standard of value. 

" Foreign relations are the province of the Fed- 
eral Government, domestic regulations and institu- 
tions belong in every State to itself." 

" Honesty is the first chapter of the book of 
wisdom; to do what is right is the one true rule 
of conduct." 

499 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

" Let all the world pray to Heaven that at 
length there may be on earth peace and good will 
toward men." 



A statesman who lived so long as Jefferson, and 
wrote so much, expressing opinions on so many 
topics, would have been more than human had he 
never said a foolish thing nor ever involved himself 
in a contradiction. 

The men who hunt with microscopes for fly- 
specks on pictures without ever being able to see 
the picture, do a thriving business picking out the 
flaws and specks in Jefferson. 

But after all is said, it comes down to this: His 
dissimulation was that of the man of the world who 
knows better than to tell those he wants to use 
that he hates them even when he does hate them; 
his diplomacy was that of the traveler who reaches 
the summit along the line of the least resistance, 
his inconsistency was that of the practical leader 
who, not being able to get what he knows to be best, 
accepts a compromise rather than get nothing. A' 
theorist, he allowed the force of circumstances to 
constrain him to be silent when his convictions 
bade him speak; to be quiescent when they would 
have urged him to active opposition. 

In theory he was an absolute free-trader, but he 
led no crusade against the Federalist tariff. 

500 



POLITICAL OPINIONS 

He believed that the nation should supplement 
its gold and silver currency by a national paper 
currency of its own — Treasury notes bottomed on 
taxes; but while he was President he made no 
efforts to inaugurate his system. He stressed it 
strongly in letters to his son-in-law, Eppes, who 
served long and prominently in Congress, but his 
system was only partially practised. He detested 
the Federal judiciary and denounced the judges as 
sappers and miners who were loosening the founda- 
tions of democracy; but he did not exert himself 
to cure the disease by any constitutional treatment. 
It excited his profound indignation to see the Gov- 
ernment abdicate in favor of national banks the 
sovereign power to create money, but when his 
friend Madison was about to sign a bill to incorpo- 
rate the third great national bank we do not find 
that Mr. Jefferson protested. 

The Constitution did not authorize the acquisi- 
tion of foreign territory or a system of internal im- 
provements, yet he bought Louisiana, tried to buy 
Florida, and spoke of spending the surplus revenue 
on roads, canals, and education. An ardent advo- 
cate of freedom for the negro, he kept his own 
slaves to the last. 

It amused the learned men of the Philosophical 
Society when Vice-President Jefferson rode up to 
Philadelphia with a bag of bones tied under his 
carriage, which bones turned out to be the remains 

501 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

of a giant ant-eater instead of the mastodon, as 
Jefferson had supposed. Much laughter can be had 
over mistakes like this, but it is merely another 
case of Newton, with his big hole in the door for 
the cat, and the little hole for the kitten. Plain 
John Smith laughs at a mistake like this — a mis- 
take hv would never make — and complacently goes 
his way, a wiser man than Newton — in his own 
mind. 

Classically educated, George Canning was pro- 
foundly amazed to learn, after he had grown to be 
a man, that tadpoles shed their tails and turned 
to frogs. Plain John Smith knows better than that, 
and is therefore a greater man than Canning, in 
Smith's catalogue. 

The apostle of Jeffersonian simplicity who made 
his own fires, who would return the bow of the 
humblest negro and would seat at his table any re- 
spectable man, no matter how poor and unpopular, 
he had a fine house, kept foreign wines, had many 
servants, employed a French cook, ordered a coat of 
arms from London, rode in a four-horse carriage, 
sported thoroughbreds, and would send his saddle- 
horse back to be regroomed if the cambric hand- 
kerchief of the master, passed over the hair of the 
horse, showed any stains. 

It may have been absurd in Mr. Jefferson to op- 
pose such titles as Mister and Esquire, but his doc- 
trine of " Resist the beginnings " was profoundly 

502 



POLITICAL OPINIONS 

wise. His earnest advice to Washington had much 
to do with those changes in the constitution of the 
Cincinnati, which rendered harmless what threat- 
ened to be the commencement of a hereditary mili- 
tary caste. 



503 



CHAPTER LI 

LAST DAYS AND DEATH 

Quietly, usefully, year after year passed with 
Mr. Jefferson, his only harassing trouble being his 
debts. 

He kept up his correspondence with a very great 
number of people, his open-door style of entertain- 
ment, his interest in books, plants, trees, birds, 
flowers, his gardens, fields, and pleasure-grounds. 
He rode horseback several hours every day, spent 
much time in social converse with relatives and 
friends, made himself the idol of all the children, 
and was quite happy when sharing their pleasures, 
forming their habits, and improving their minds. 
As a patriarch, venerated and beloved, his tall 
figure moved through the gathering shadows of 
Monticello with a majesty, a grave sweet dignity, 
which few attain. 

He had made bitter enemies — especially in Vir- 
ginia, where he had removed the Capital from his- 
toric old Williamsburg to the then straggling vil- 
lage of Richmond; he had cut off the ancient aris- 
tocratic church from the public treasury; and he 
had knocked the props from under the landed aris- 

504 



LAST DAYS AND DEATH 

tocracy. John Randolph, of Roanoke, probably 
voiced the sentiment of thousands when he de- 
clared that Jefferson-s leveling principles had 
brought upon Virginia financial ruin, lowering at 
the same time the standard of character. 

To these causes for hatred was added another: 
he did not conform to the religious beliefs of his 
neighbors. He did not keep his views locked within 
his own breast, as Washington had more prudently 
done. That indefatigable pen was, every now and 
then, giving itself all the license of the free and 
bold thinker to whom expression is absolutely nec- 
essary. 

Active causes such as these kept the dogs bark- 
ing to the last; and we find this way-worn servant 
of the republic charged with having overdrawn his 
salary while minister to France. The libel was pub- 
lished in a Richmond paper at a time when the old 
man already had one leg in the grave. Think of the 
mortification he must have suffered in being com- 
pelled to prove himself an honest man in his home 
paper and to his home people! 

He resigned the presidency of the Philosophical 
Society, an honorary post which he had held for 
eighteen years. 

Through the kindly oflQces of Dr. Benjamin Rush 
a reconciliation was brought about between Mr. 
Jefferson and John Adams; and the two venerable 
statesmen resumed their correspondence. 

505 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

In a fall from the steps of one of the terraces, 
Mr. Jefferson broke his other arm, and being now 
disabled in both wrists, writing became doubly 
painful. Nevertheless, the industrious old man 
never ceased to write. The last motion of a definite 
sort which he was to make with his right hand was 
the motion of writing. 

His eyes continued good and he could enjoy 
reading to the last; his hair turned gray, but re- 
mained abundant; his teeth remained perfect; 
his hearing became somewhat dull. 

When young he had been given to fine clothes. 
In France he wore a garb which his secretary 
planned, and it included red breeches. When he 
began to wear these trousers in New York as Secre- 
tary of State, there was some commotion in society, 
and he soon left them off. During his first term as 
President his raiment is said to have been studi- 
ously negligent. The political literature of the time 
identifies particularly an old pair of corduroy 
breeches, which had been in the tub and the soap- 
suds so often that their color had faded to a dingy 
white. His shabby brown coat also was the source 
of considerable suffering among the fastidious. 

In all this, political spite may have exaggerated 
the facts. During his second term the complaints 
about his dress died away, and the reader of cur- 
rent comments notes the advent of the black coat, 
which the President wears, and the consequent re- 

506 



LAST DAYS AND DEATH 

turn of composure to his critics. During his later 
years, while he preserved his scrupulous neatness it 
seems that his clothing was very plain and old- 
fashioned. 

Frame in your mind the figure of a tall, spare, 
straight old farmer dressed in common clothes 
and surrounded by a group of grandchildren who 
climb on his knees, or recite their lessons to him, or 
play around him as he strolls slowly about his 
grounds, and you have a fair likeness of Jefferson 
in retirement. 

The embargo and the War of 1812 played havoc 
with Virginia, and the losses on Mr. Jefferson's 
farms were as serious as elsewhere. Crops could 
find no markets, and the value of money, measured 
by the produce which had to buy it, was out of all 
proportion to the cost of production. Finally, the 
overseer was discharged and one of the grandchil- 
dren, the favorite Thomas Jefferson Randolph, took 
the management of Mr. Jefferson's business into his 
own hands. 

But the expenses were so great, there were so 
many visitors to feed and serve, the interest-charge 
on old debts was so heavy, and the bad crop years 
so frequent, that it was impossible to work the 
property out of debt. One of the finishing strokes 
was a security debt of $20,000 for an old friend. 
There being no market for land at fair prices, Mr. 
Jefferson applied to the Legislature for leave to 

507 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

dispose of real estate by lottery. There was also a 
suggestion that the State should lend him money. 
Neither of these plans materialized. The British 
having burned the Congressional Library, Mr. 
Jefferson offered to sell his books, his fondly treas- 
ured books, to the nation. There was much con- 
temptible suspicion and ill will on the part of polit- 
ical enemies. The Pharisee opened his mouth and 
spoke; and the Pharisee announced that the entire 
collection of books should be rejected because it in- 
cluded the works of Voltaire. The Pharisee had 
never read Voltaire, of course. That in itself would 
have been contamination. But the Pharisee had 
heard some other member of his tribe denounce 
Voltaire, and that was sufficient — there being no 
prejudice quite so stubborn as the hereditary sort 
which doesn't know and refuses to be informed. 
Finally, Congress bought the books for |23,950, 
their value being, perhaps, four times that amount. 
The creditors of Mr. Jefferson got the money. 

It becoming noised abroad that the aged states- 
man was about to be sold out of house and home, 
public subscriptions were set on foot for him. New 
York sent |8,000; Philadelphia, |5,000; Baltimore, 
$3,000; Virginia did nothing. In fact, his home 
State and home county held a greater number of 
bitter enemies than any equal area of the Union, 
with the possible exception of New England. 

When the notorious Callender, whom Jefferson 
508 



LAST DAYS AND DEATH 

freed from fine and imprisonment under John 
Adams's sedition law, demanded the Richmond 
post-office from President Jefferson and was re- 
fused, the worst abuse he could throw at Jefferson 
came in the shape of Albemarle affidavits. 

In one's own immediate environment are to be 
found those whom one has combated, and perhaps 
overthrown; the competitors one has distanced, 
the former associates one has outgrown; the local 
opinions one has risen above; the narrow preju- 
dices one has reproved; the envies, jealousies, cra- 
vings for revenge that one has provoked — hence 
within rifle-range of one's own house are usually to 
be found the hidden fires of the hatreds which are 
unquenchable. It was so with Jefferson. 

The voluntary offerings made for his relief by 
sympathetic admirers pleased the old statesman 
immensely, and he believed that his debts had been 
paid. On the contrary, the amount thus real- 
ized was but a drop in the bucket. He remained 
hopelessly insolvent, happily unconscious of the 
fact. 

Unable to help himself, he remained capable of 
helping others. It was his suggestion which 
started the movement in favor of Lafayette. Con- 
gress managed to recall what Federalism and its 
historians had well-nigh forgotten — that France 
had shed its blood and treasure for us when we 
needed them as we never could need them again. 

509 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

Lafayette got 24,000 acres of land and |200,000 in 
money. 

Gouverneur Morris accuses the Lafayettes of re- 
pudiating one-half the loan he made the family 
when the Marquis was an Austrian prisoner at 
Olmtitz. The portrait of an ungrateful, dishonest 
Lafayette is not handsome. But there are other pic- 
tures of the many-sided Frenchman. There is one 
that would group Lafayette and Monroe — both old, 
both feeble, both poor. They had fought together 
when they were nothing but boys. They had hon- 
ored each other all their lives. Now as they were 
tottering toward the grave, noble-hearted old Jef- 
ferson was able to turn the tide of fortune — not to 
ex-President Monroe or to ex-President Jefferson, 
but to ex-Revolutionary volunteer Lafayette, And 
the gallant Frenchman, his purse suddenly full, 
turns toward his feeble companion in arms, the 
moneyless James Monroe, and tells him to take 
what he needs. 
; " Honor to Lafayette! " 

'■ In that attitude, holding out the open hand to 
the Virginian whose " soul might have been turned 
wrong side out without finding a spot upon it," 
Lafayette's figure stands in a light as radiant as 
that which shone about him when he led the lines 
at Yorktown.* 

' It does not appear, however, that Monroe accepted any aid from 
Ijafayette. 

510 



LAST DAYS AIS^D DEATH 

In the summer of 1825 Madison and Monroe 
were present at the banquet given to Lafayette by 
the University of Virginia, but Jefferson v^^as not 
strong enough to go. 

Lafayette came to Monticello, and the meeting 
of these two relics of a past age can not be better 
described than Mrs. Randolph has done it: 

" The barouche containing Lafayette stopped at 
the end of the lawn. His escort — one hundred and 
twenty mounted men — formed on one side in a semi- 
circle extending from the carriage to the house. A 
crowd of about two hundred men, who were drawn 
together by curiosity to witness the meeting of 
two venerable men, formed themselves in a semi- 
circle on the opposite side. 

" As Lafayette descended from the carriage, Jef- 
ferson descended to the steps of the portico. Jeffer- 
son was feeble and tottering with age, Lafayette 
permanently lame and broken in health. 

" As they approached each other their uncer- 
tain gait quickened itself into a shuffling run, and 
exclaiming 'Ah, Jefferson!' 'Ah, Lafayette!' they 
burst into tears as they fell into each other's 
arms." 

Among those who looked on there was not a 
tearless eye, and no sound except an occasional 
sob. The two old men entered the house, and the 
crowd dispersed in silence. 

In all public events Mr. Jefferson continued to 
511 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

take an interest, but he made few efforts to in- 
fluence men or measures. 

When the slavery question drew its sharp geo- 
graphical line between North and South in 1820, 
the " fire-bell at night " aroused him from slumber, 
filling him with forebodings. Upon that subject 
he wrote in substance: 

" The Missouri is not a moral question, but 
one of power merely. Its object is to raise a 
geographical principle for the choice of a President, 
and the noise will be kept up until that is 
effected. 

" All know that the spreading of the slaves does 
not increase the number of the slaves, but dilutes 
the evil and renders easier the remedy of it. In 
the mean time it is a ladder for rivals climbing to 
power." 

In that disappointing work, the Recollections of 
Richard W. Thompson, the author describes Mr. 
Jefferson as he appeared in Charlottesville in 1825. 
The venerable statesman had come into town from 
Monticello to do some trading at one of the stores. 
To little Thompson it appeared that Jefferson was 
dressed in home-made clothing. His shoulders were 
stooped, his voice feeble and trembling. He chose 
his purchases with care and did not higgle about 
prices. The merchant was very deferential, and 
when the trading was finished took his customer by 
the arm to assist him to the carriage, which Jeffer- 

512 



LAST DAYS AND DEATH 

son slowly entered with the aid of the merchant 
and the old negro driver. 

In Kennedy's Life of William Wirt there is a 
note by the author in which Mr. Jefferson is vividly 
pictured in his last days: 

" I had never seen Mr. Jefferson. It was a hot 
day in July when we reached the top of the moun- 
tain and entered the spacious hall of the mansion. 
Mr. Jefferson had been very ill with a recent attack 
of his malady, and therefore excused himself from 
receiving company. 

" There was a large glass door which opened on 
the hall and separated Mr. Jefferson's apartments 
from it. Whilst we sat in this hall a tall, attenuated 
figure, slightly stooping forward, and exhibiting a 
countenance filled with an expression of pain, 
slowly walked across the space visible through the 
glass door, 

" It w^as Mr. Jefferson. 

" He was dressed in a costume long out of 
fashion, small-clothes, a waistcoat with flaps, and it 
struck us, in the brief view we had, some remnants 
of embroidery. 

" The silence of the footfall, the old costume, and 
the short space in which that image glided past the 
glass door made a strange and mysterious im- 
pression upon us. It was all that I ever saw of the 
Sage of Monticello." 

As his strength waned, he feared that he might 
34 513 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

live too long, might linger in dotage. T]iis he 
dreaded, and he longed to die before he became a 
mere driveling imbecile. To death he looked for- 
ward with serene confidence, an utter absence of 
fear. A gradual failure of the physical organs and 
a dysentery which could not be checked brought on 
the end, July 4, 1826. To the last he was clear- 
minded and resolute. Declining to see a minister 
of the Gospel except as a " kind good friend," the 
Deist who had always yearned for right and light, 
and who had never wilfully harmed a human be- 
ing, nor ever prostituted to any base purpose his 
time, talent, or opportunity, put his feet into 
the great road without the slightest tremor of 
doubt. 

On the night of the 3d of July he had asked, 
once and again, "Is it the Fourth?" His last 
thoughts were on his country and its birthday — 
the only birthday he ever wanted this republic to 
celebrate. " Is it the Fourth? " Told that it was, 
he seemed satisfied and passed into slumber. Dur- 
ing the morning of the Fourth he was in a stupor. 
Once he roused himself. The fingers — the long, 
chalky, stiffened fingers — took the old, old shape 
of holding the pen and made feebly the motion of 
writing. 

With his last words he said, " Tell the com- 
mittee to be on the alert! " 

The spent, relaxed brain was falling backward 
514 



LAST DAYS AND DEATH 

into the trains of thought, the ancient grooves of 
purpose, the bygone battle-fields where he had 
stood in the ranks along where the foremost stood. 

Timid? No, not timid then. Incapable? No, 
not incapable then. Weak and vacillating? Not 
then, oh, not then! 

England marked him as too bold, and she wrote 
his name on her black list — her black list of traitors 
where the names of Hampden and Sydney and 
Cromwell and William Wallace and Robert Emmet 
are found. 

Nervous patriots marked him as too bold; and 
his hot counsel was put aside many and many a 
time. 

" Tell the committee to be on the alert — Vir- 
ginia's Committee of Safety, perhaps, of which the 
dying man had been chairman in the days that tried 
men's souls. In another time which tested the 
souls of men, another great Virginian called out in 
his delirium, " Tell A. P. Hill to prepare for action." 

Great in elemental grandeur is that race whose 
leaders, even in the article of death, cling to duty 
and to country, rather than to self — anxious but 
for the cause to which life has been given. 

Bells were pealing for the Fourth of July all 
over the great land, the boom of cannon and the 
sound of patriotic music thrilled men and women 
from Canadian borders to the Gulf of Mexico. It 
was a classic death, a sublime death, that amid such 

515 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

anthems as those the stoutest leader of the North 
and the boldest statesman of the South should 
close their eyes in final sleep. 



Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, dying on the 
same day, July 4, 1826, there was but one Signer 
left — Charles Carroll, of Carrollton. 

The old Roman was living in retirement at his 
stately Doughoregan Manor, near Baltimore, when 
on July 20, 1826, he was pressed to attend the 
funeral services in memory of Adams and Jefferson. 
There was a solemn procession through the streets 
of Baltimore, a draped funeral car with black 
horses, a band of music playing dirges, a troop of 
horse with standard draped in black. In a carriage 
following the car rode Charles Carroll, the only 
living man who had signed the Declaration of In- 
dependence, and John Eager Howard, who had 
turned back the rout of battle at the Cowpens. 
Four generations trooped behind the venerable 
heroes, these veterans of the ancient struggle for 
liberty. 

The Governor of Maryland and all his brilliant 
staff were there; members of the Executive Council 
and committees of arrangements were there; a 
multitude of worthy people from far and near were 
there, but this writer has eyes for two figures only 
— old Charles Carroll, the last of the Signers, and 

516 



LAST DAYS AND DEATH 

John Edgar Howard, the hero of the Cowpens. 
Two of the noblest, mourning two of the noblest — 
it is a spectacle to move patriots as long as old 
glories command reverence; and, with this proces- 
sion, our story may end. 



517 



APPENDIX 



INAUGUEAL ADDRESS OF THOMAS JEFFEE- 
SON, AS PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED 
STATES, MARCH 4, 1801. 

Friends and Fellow Citizens: 

Called upon to undertake the duties of the first execu- 
tive office of our country, I avail myself of the presence of 
that portion of my fellow citizens which is here assembled 
to express my grateful thanks for the favor with which 
they have been pleased to look toward me, to declare a 
sincere consciousness that the task is above my talents, and 
that I approach it with those anxious and awful presenti- 
ments which the greatness of the charge and the weakness 
of my powers so justly inspire. A rising nation, spread 
over a wide and fruitful land, traversing all the seas with 
the rich productions of their industry, engaged in com- 
merce with nations who feel power and forget right, ad- 
vancing rapidly to destinies beyond the reach of mortal eye; 
when I contemplate these transcendent objects, and see the 
honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country 
committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink 
from the contemplation and humble myself before the mag- 
nitude of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed, should I de- 
spair, did not the presence of many whom I see here re- 
mind me that in the other high authorities provided by our 
Constitution I shall find resources of wisdom, of virtue, 
and of zeal on which to rely under all difficulties. To you, 
then, gentlemen, who are charged with the sovereign func- 
tions of legislation, and to those associated with you, I look 

519 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

with encouragement for that guidance and support which 
may enable us to steer with safety the vessel in which we 
are all embarked, amidst the conflicting elements of a 
troubled world. 

During the contest of opinion through which we have 
passed, the animation of discussions and of exertions has 
sometimes worn an aspect which might impose on strangers 
unused to think freely, and to speak and to write what they 
think; but this being now decided by the voice of the na- 
tion, announced according to the rules of the Constitution, 
all will of course arrange themselves under the will of the 
law, and unite in common efforts for the common good. 
All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle that, though 
the will of the majority is in all cases to prevail, that will, 
to be rightful, must be reasonable; that the minority pos- 
sess their equal rights, which equal laws must protect, and 
to violate which would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow- 
citizens, unite with one heart and one mind, let us restore 
to social intercourse that harmony and affection without 
which liberty, and even life itself, are but dreary things. 
And let us reflect, that, having banished from our land that 
religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled and 
suffered, we have yet gained little, if we countenance a polit- 
ical intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and as capable of as 
bitter and bloody persecutions. During the throes and con- 
vulsions of the ancient world, during the agonizing spasms 
of infuriated man, seeking through blood and slaughter his 
long-lost liberty, it was not wonderful that the agitation of 
the billows should reach even this distant and peaceful 
shore ; that this should be more felt and feared by some, and 
less by others, and should divide opinions as to measures of 
safety; but every difference of opinion is not a difference of 
principle. We have called by different names brethren of 
the same principle. We are all Eepublicans; we are all 
Federalists. If there be any among us who wish to dissolve 
this Union, or to change its republican form, let them stand 

520 



APPENDIX 

undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error 
of opinion may be tolerated, where reason is left free to 
combat it. I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that 
a republican government can not be strong; that this gov- 
ernment is not strong enough. But would the honest 
patriot, in the full tide of successful experiment, abandon a 
government which has so far kept us free and firm, on the 
theoretic and visionary fear that this government, the 
world's best hope, may, by possibility, want energy to pre- 
serve itself? I trust not. I believe this, on the contrary, 
the strongest government on earth. I believe it is the only 
one where every man, at the call of the law, would fly to 
the standard of the law, and would meet invasions of the 
public order as his own personal concern. Sometimes it is 
said that man can not be trusted with the government of 
himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of 
others? Or, have we found angels in the form of kings to 
govern him? Let history answer this question. 

Let us, then, with courage and confidence, pursue our 
own federal and republican principles; our attachment to 
union and representative government. Kindly separated by 
nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of 
one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the 
degradation of the others, possessing a chosen country, with 
room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and 
thousandth generation, entertaining a due sense of our 
equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisi- 
tion of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our 
fellow citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our ac- 
tions and their sense of them, enlightened by a benign 
religion, professed, indeed, and practised in various forms, 
yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, grat- 
itude, and the love of man, acknowledging and adoring an 
overruling Providence, which, by all its dispensations, 
proves that it delights in the happiness of man here, and 
the greater happiness hereafter; with all these blessings, 

35 521 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

what more is necessary to make us a happy and prosperous 
people? Still one thing more, fellow citizens, a wise and 
frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring 
one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate 
their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall 
not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. 
This is the sum of good government; and this is necessary 
to close the circle of our felicities. 

About to enter, fellow citizens upon the exercise of 
duties which comprehend everything dear and valuable to 
you, it is proper you should understand what I deem the 
essential principles of our government, and consequently, 
those which ought to shape its administration. I will com- 
press them within the narrowest compass they will bear, 
stating the general principle, but not all its limitations. 
Equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or per- 
suasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest 
friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none; 
the support of the State governments in all their rights, as 
the most competent administrations for our domestic con- 
cern, and the surest bulwarks against anti-republican tend- 
encies; the preservation of the General Government in its 
whole constitutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our peace 
at home and safety abroad; a jealous care of the right of 
election by the people, a mild and safe corrective of abuses 
which are lopped by the sword of revolution where peaceable 
remedies are unprovided; absolute acquiescence in the deci- 
sions of the majority, the vital principle of republics, from 
which there is no appeal but to force, the vital principle and 
immediate parent of despotism; a well-disciplined militia, 
our best reliance in peace, and for the first moments of war, 
till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy of the civil 
over the military authority ; economy in the public expense, 
that labor may be lightly burdened; the honest payment of 
our debts, and sacred preservation of the public faith; en- 
couragement of agriculture, and of commerce as its hand- 

522 



APPENDIX 

maid; the diffusion of information, and arraignment of all 
abuses at the bar of the public reason; freedom of religion, 
freedom of the press, and freedom of person, under the pro- 
tection of the habeas corpus, and the trial by juries impar- 
tially selected. These principles form the bright constella- 
tion which has gone before us and guided our steps 
through an age of revolution and reformation. The wis- , 
dom of our sages and blood of our heroes have been de- ' 
voted to their attainment ; they should be the creed of our ; 
political faith, the text of civic instruction, the touchstone ; 
by which to try the services of those we trust; and should 
we wander from them in moments of error or of alarm, let 
us hasten to retrace our steps, and to regain the road which 
alone leads to peace, liberty, and safety. 

I repair, then, fellow citizens, to the post you have as- 
signed me. With experience enough in subordinate offices 
to have seen the difficulties of this, the greatest of all, I 
have learned to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of 
imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputa- 
tion and the favor which bring him into it. Without pre- 
tensions to that high confidence you reposed in our first and 
greatest revolutionary character, whose preeminent service 
has entitled him to the first place in his country's love, and 
destined for him the fairest page in the volume of faithful 
history, I ask so much confidence only as may give firmness 
and effect to the legal administration of your affairs. I 
shall often go wrong through defect of judgment. When 
right, I shall often be thought wrong by those whose posi- 
tions will not command a view of the whole ground. I ask 
your indulgence for my own errors, which will never be in- 
tentional; and your support against the errors of others, 
who may condemn what they would not, if seen in all its 
parts. The approbation implied by your suffrage is a great 
consolation to me for the past; and my future solicitude 
will be to retain the good opinion of those who have be- 
stowed it in advance, to conciliate that of others, by doing 

523 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 

them all the good in my power, and to be instrumental to 
the happiness and freedom of all. 

Eelying, then, on the patronage of your good-will, I ad- 
vance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it 
whenever you become sensible how much better choices it is 
in your power to make. And may that infinite Power 
which rules the destinies of the universe lead our councils 
to what is best, and give them a favorable issue, for your 
peace and prosperity. 



524 



INDEX 



Act for ports of 1691, 1. 

Adams, John, friendship for Jef- 
ferson, 129; Declaration of In- 
dependence, 143 ; minister to 
France, 241 ; minister to Eng- 
land, 244 ; political relations 
with Jefferson, 365 ; Vice-Pres- 
ident, 430; presidential ad- 
ministration, 350; death, 514. 

Adams, Samuel, opposition to the 
Stamp Act, 41; and American 
Independence, 131, 283; Wash- 
ington's appointment as Com- 
mander-in-chief, 147 ; friend- 
ship for Jefferson, 129; Jeffer- 
son's letter to, 402. 

Alamance Creek, the fight at, 77. 

Alfred, Paul Jones's ship, 194. 

Alien and sedition laws, 362, 376. 

Ancestral homes, meaning of, 
169. 

Andre, Major, capture of, 191. 

Annapolis Convention, 292. 

Anti-Federalists, as a political 
party, 330. 

Arnold, Benedict, Canadian cam- 
paign, 187; treason of , 191; in- 
vasion of Virginia, 233. 

Ashe, John, opposes the Stamp 
Act, 40; revolt in North Caro- 
lina, 83. 

Bacon, Nathaniel, rebellion of, 

282. 
Bank, national, beginning of, 
316; opposition to, 318. 



Barbary pirates, war with, 247, 

418, 479. 
Bayard, James A., Jefferson-Burr 

contest, 396. 
Beaumarchias, Pierre Augustin 

Caron de, assistance to Ameri- 
ca, 165, 287. 
Bernard, Sir Francis, on the 

Stamp Act, 45. 
Betsy, captured by the Barbary 

pirates, 249. 
Bibby, Captain, at Monticello, 

184. 
Bland, Colonel Richard, in Vir- 
ginia House of Burgesses, 66; 

first Continental Congress, 109. 
Boiling, Thomas, 51. 
Bon Homme Richard, fight with 

the Serapis, 195. 
Boone, Daniel, 224. 
Boston, port closed by Great 

Britain, 105 ; sympathy of the 

colonies, 109, 134; evacuation 

of, 187. 
Botetourt, Lord, Governor of 

Virginia, 60, 152. 
Boucher, Rev. Jonathan, 129. 
Braddock, defeat of, 154. 
Buffon, Jefferson's argument 

with, 257. 
Bull, Jesse, cotton-gin of, 338. 
Bulloch, Archibald, first governor 

of independent Georgia, 137, 

163. 
Bunker Hill, battle of, 127, 187. 
Burgoyne, surrender of, 190. 



525 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 



Burke, Edmund, on the Stamp 
Act, 45. 

Burr, Aaron, political methods, 
377, 378, 387; character as de- 
scribed by Carroll Morris, 389 ; 
Vice-President, 379, 382, 430; 
duel with Hamilton, 436 ; con- 
spiracy and trial, 447. 

Burwell, Miss, Jefferson's atten- 
tions to, 87. 

Camden, defeat of Gates at, 190. 

Canada, attempt to enlist in the 
cause of the colonists, 189, 
285. 

Capital, struggle for the location 
of the, 317, 395. 

Carr, Dabney, Jefferson's friend- 
ship for, 23; married to 
Martha Jefferson, 5 1 ; Virginia 
Committee of Correspondence, 
100; home life and death, 101; 
family of, at Monticello, 120; 
debt of the republic to, 283. 

Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, 
110; Canadian mission, 189, 
285; opinion of Jefferson and 
Burr, 389; at funeral of Jef- 
ferson and Adams, 514. 

Cary, Archibald, Virginia Com- 
mittee of Correspondence, 100. 

Catholics, appeal to Canadian, 
189, 285. 

Cedar Springs, battle at, 206. 

Chase, Samuel, impeachment 
trial of, 404, 425. 

Chesapeake, attacked by the 
Leopard, 439. 

Clark, John Rogers, 223, 408; 
takes Kaskaskia, 226 ; expedi- 
tion against Vincennes, 230. 

Clark, Lewis and, expedition, 
416. 

Class rule in America, 312. 

Clinton, George, ratification of 
the Constitution, 304. 



Coast Survey, beginning of, 403. 
Committee of Correspondence, 

Virginia, 100, 106, 290. 
" Common Sense," publication 

of, 141, 174. 
Concord, battle at, 186. 
Confederation, Articles of, 290, 

306. 
Congress, Continental, First, 123, 

283. 
Connecticut Compromise in the 

Constitutional Convention, 298. 
Constitutional Convention, gene- 
sis, 292 ; meets, 297 ; adopts 

the Constitution, 298. 
Cornstalk, Indian chief, defeated 

at the Great Kanawha, 111. 
Cornwallis, in command in the 

South, 207; at Yorktown, 213. 
Correspondence, Committee of, 

100, 106, 290. 
Cotton-gin, invention of, 338. 
Courts, Federal, power of the, 

406. 
Cowpens, battle of, 212, 219. 
Croghan, George, defense of Fort 

Stephenson, 474. 

Dale, Richard, on the Bon 

Homme Richard, 199. 
Dayton, Jonathan, in Constitu- 
tional Convention, 297. 
Deane, Silas, minister to France, 

166, 287. 
Dearborn, Henry, Secretary of 

War, 428. 
De Bonvouloir, French envoy at 

Philadelphia, 165, 286. 
Decatur, Stephen, betrayed at 

New London, 478. 
Declaration of Independence, 108, 

157; reception in the colonies, 

161. 
Declaration of Rights, 1765, 123. 
De Kalb, Baron, aid to America, 

190. 



526 



INDEX 



De Marbois, French envoy to Fanning, Colonel Edmund, with 



Philadelphia, 236. 

Democracy, debt of, to Virginia, 
277. 

De Reidesel, General, at Monti- 
cello, 183. 

Dexter, Samuel, Secretary of 
War, 377. 

Dinwiddle, Robert, Governor of 
Virginia, 150. 

Douglass, Rev. William, tutor to 
Jefferson, 13. 

Dudingston, Lieutenant, com- 
mander of the Gaspee, 96. 

Dimgeness, home of the Ran- 
dolphs, 5. 

Dimmore, Lord, Governor of 
Virginia, 106, 152, 293; battle 
with the Indians on the Great 
Kanawha, 111; Patrick Hen- 
ry's march on Williamsburg, 
124; flight to England, 118, 
132, 185; ravages the Chesa- 
peake, 140; Washington's rela- 
tions with, 155. 

Easton, Pa., treaty with the 

Indians at, 284. 
Education in colonial Virginia, 

15; Jefl"erson's reforms in Vir- 
ginia, 182. 
Elections, method of conducting 

presidential, 382 ; change in, 

439. 
Embargo, the, 439, 442. 
Entail, law of, in Virginia, work 

of Jefferson to abolish, 166. 
Eppes, John, marries Jefferson's 

daughter, 341, 365. 
Estates, naming of, in colonial 

Virginia, 169. 

Fairfax, Lord, 150. 
Falmouth, destruction of, by the 
British, 141. 



Tryon in North Carolina, 75. 

Fauquier, Francis, Governor of 
Virginia, friendship for Jeffer- 
son, 17 ; death, 60. 

Federalists, as a political party, 
330. 

Fenno's Gazette, 332. 

Ferguson, General Patrick, at 
King's Mountain, 207. 

Few, Captain William, of the 
North Carolina Regulators, 78. 

Force Bill, the, 443. 

Fort Jefferson, 232, 299. 

Fort Necessity, surrender of, 154. 

Fort Sullivan, defense of, by 
Moultrie, 143. 

Fort Washington, capture of, 
189. 

France, condition of, in the lat- 
ter part of the eighteenth cen- 
tury, 96 ; struggle with Great 
Britain for the possession of 
America, 28 ; in the Ohio Val- 
ley, 151; aid against Great 
Britain during the Revolution, 
165, 190, 215, 285, 324; Genet's 
mission to America, 323, 355 ; 
threat to invade United States, 
356; plans for development of 
Louisiana, 410. 

Franklin, Benjamin, 131, 159; 
Canadian mission, 189, 285; 
minister to France, 166, 241, 
288; in Constitutional Conven- 
tion, 297. 

French Revolution, Jefferson's 
traditional debt to, 108 ; let- 
ters in regard to the condition 
of the French peasantry, 262; 
Jefferson's relation to, 265 ; 
Genet's mission to America, 
323 ; Monroe's relation to, 353, 

Freneau's Gazette, 332. 



527 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 



Gage, General Thomas, on the 
Stamp Act, 45. 

Gallatin, Albert, Secretary of the 
Treasury, 428. 

Gaspee, destruction of the, 96. 

Genet episode, the, 322, 444. 

Georgia, condition of, at the time 
of the Revolution, 133. 

Gerry, Elbridge, in the Constitu- 
tional Convention, 314. 

Gibault, Pierre, and George Rog- 
ers Clark, 227. 

Gist, Christopher, in the Ohio 
Valley, 151, 154. 

Granger, Gideon, Postmaster- 
General, 428. 

Great Britain, and the American 
Revolution, 27 ; attitude to- 
ward French Revolution, 323 ; 
attitude toward United States 
after Revolution, 355, 439. 

Griswold, Roger, attack on Mat- 
thew Lyon, 374. 

Guilford Court-House, battle of, 
213. 

Habersham, James, opposition to 
the Stamp Act, 134. 

Habersham, Major Joseph, at 
head of Georgia patriots, 137. 

Hale, Nathan, execution of, 188. 

Hall, Dr. Lyman, 136. 

Hamilton, Alexander, at York- 
town, 216; Annapolis Conven- 
tion, 292 ; Constitutional Con- 
vention, 297; Secretary of the 
Treasury, 310; political sys- 
tem of, 311, 319, 331, 388; the 
Genet episode, 327 ; on Wash- 
ington's death, 348 ; at head of 
the army, 357 ; intrigue with 
Miranda, 360, 378, 389, 413; 
the Jefferson- Burr contest, 385, 
395 ; final struggle with Burr 
and death, 433. 

Hamilton, Henry, in the wilder- 



ness, 224; takes Vincennes, 
229; surrenders to Clark, 231, 

Hancock, John, Declaration of 
Independence, 159. 

Harnet, Cornelius, the Mecklen- 
burg Resolutions, 158. 

Harrison, Benjamin, first Conti- 
nental Congress, 109. 

Hartford, Secession Convention 
at, 475. 

Harvey, John, Jefferson's guar- 
dian, 14. 

Henry, Patrick, 3, 33; education 
and professional career, 49, 57 ; 
friendship for Jefferson, 46, 
117; break with Jefferson, 
49; speech in the Virginia 
House of Burgesses, 41 ; the 
Parsons case, 47, 50; march on 
Williamsburg, 84, 124, 155; 
Virginia Committee of Corre- 
spondence, 99; first Continen- 
tal Congress, 109 ; in com- 
mand of Virginia forces, 140; 
Governor of Virginia, 185; in 
Virginia Convention, 299 ; alien 
and sedition laws, 376 ; debate 
with John Randolph, 422. 

Hermitage, The, home of Andrew 
Jackson, xi. 

Hessians, employed by Great 
Britain, 157. 

Holland, aid to the colonists, 189. 

Holy Alliance, 489. 

Howard, John Eager, at Cow- 
pens, 213; at funeral of Jef- 
ferson and Adams, 514. 

Hull, General William, surrender 
of Detroit, 473. 

Husbands, Herman, leads revolt 
against Governor Tryon in 
North Carolina, 74. 

Impressment of American sea- 
men, 329, 440, 445. 
Indians, Jefferson's interest in. 



528 



INDEX 



9 ; employed by the British 
against the colonies, 157, 223 ; 
troubles with, following the 
Revolution, 441. 

Jackson, Andrew, xi; War of 
1812, 475; the Burr conspiracy, 
447. 

Jamestown, the founders of, 279. 

Jasper, Sergeant, at battle of 
Fort Sullivan, 144. 

Jay, John, 129 ; Annapolis Con- 
vention, 292; treaty with 
Great Britain, 345, 355, 370. 

Jefferson, Jane, JefTerson's fa- 
vorite sister, death, 51. 

Jefferson, Jane ( Randolph ) , 
mother of Thomas Jefferson, 
3 ; marriage, 5 ; at Shadwell, 
120. 

Jefferson, Martha, elder daughter 
of Thomas Jefferson, 241, 270; 
marriage, 341 ; letters to, 459. 

Jefferson, Martha, wife of Thom- 
as Jefferson, marriage, 87 ; 
character, 90; musical ability, 
115; ill health, 182; death, 
234. 

Jefferson, Mary, daughter of 
Thomas Jefferson, 270; mar- 
riage, 341, 365; death, 461. 

Jefferson, Mary, sister of Thom- 
as Jefferson, marriage to Dab- 
ney Carr, 51. 

Jefferson, Peter, father of Thom- 
as Jefferson, 2, 150; marriage, 
6 ; death, 7. 

Jefferson, Randolph, brother of 
Thomas Jefferson, 71, note, 
120. 

Jefferson, Thomas, ancestry, 1 ; 
appearance, 20, 505, 510; 
Bible, 482; birth, 7; boyhood 
and education, 1, 11, 19; char- 
acter, 21; children, 182, 270, 
459; debts, 92, 340, 462, 505; 



death, 512; ideas of education, 
484; financial views, 493; 
home life, 340 ; income, 55 ; 
inventions, 343 ; last years, 
502; letters, 262, 459; love of 
nature, 344 ; marriage, 87 ; 
musical ability, 115, 184; note- 
books, 52 ; physical training, 
8, 11, 21; political courage, 
366; political system, 331, 495; 
religious belief, 480; college 
days, 14; enters the law, 20; 
admitted to the bar, 51 ; legal 
practise, 56; elected burgess, 
60; succeeds Randolph in Con- 
tinental Congress, 126; Gov- 
ernor of Virginia, 185; services 
in Congress, 237 ; minister to 
France, 241, 255, 274; Secre- 
tary of State in Washington's 
Cabinet, 335 ; resigns, 334 ; the 
Genet episode, 328; tribute to 
Washington, 348 ; Vice-Presi- 
dent, 350, 362; President, 379, 
382, 397, 455; Jefferson-Burr 
contest, 382 ; second term, 439 ; 
declines third term, 453. 

Jones, John Paul, 258; naval ex- 
ploits, 193; death, 201. 

Jumonville, N. Coulon de, 154. 

Kaskaskia, captured by Clark, 
226. 

Kenton, Simon, in the wilder- 
ness, 224. 

Kentucky Resolutions, 363. 

King's Mountain, victory of the 
Americans at, 207, 219. 

Knox, General Henry, Secretary 
of War, 318; opposes Hamilton 
as head of the army, 357. 

Kosciusko, Tadeusz, 190. 

Labor, status of, in colonial Vir- 
ginia, 4. 

Lacey, Edward, at King's Moun- 
tain, 208. 



529 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 



Lafayette, aid to America, 190, 
324; at Yorktown, 214; Jef- 
ferson's report to, on the condi- 
tion of the French people, 262 ; 
sympathy for Monroe, 508; 
visit to Monticello, x, 509. 

Lafreniere, heads revolt of Lou- 
isiana against Spanish rule, 
36. 

Laurens, John, at Yorktown, 
216; mission to France, 214; 
the Rutledge letter, 221. 

Lauzun, Armand Louis de Gon- 
taut, 216. 

Lee, Francis Lightfoot, 99, 105. 

Lee, Richard Henry, Virginia 
Committee of Correspondence, 
100, 1.32; First Continental 
Congress, 109, 143, 283. 

Lewis and Clark expedition, 416. 

Lewis, General, defeats the In- 
dians on the Great Kanawha, 
111. 

Lexington, battle of, 84, 186. 

Lincoln, Levi, Attorney-General, 
429. 

Livingston, Robert R., the Lou- 
isiana purchase, 411. 

Lobby, the, origin of, 317. 

Logan, chief of the Mingoes, re- 
ply of, 112. 

Logan, Dr., voluntary mission to 
France, 359. 

Long Island, battle of, 188. 

Louisiana purchase, the, 408. 

Louisiana, revolt in, 1764, 35. 

Lyon, Matthew, 372 ; attacked by 
Griswold, 374; Jefferson-Burr 
contest, 396 ; the Yazoo frauds, 
425. 

McDuffie, George, on the North- 
western Territories, 408. 

McHenry, James, Secretary of 
War, 377. 

Mcintosh, Colonel Lachlan, 138. 



Mackinaw, Pontiac's capture of 
the fort at, 37. 

Maddox, Joseph, 135. 

Madison, James, and Harriet 
Martineau, 13 ; religious lib- 
erty in Virginia, 180; con- 
trasted with Edmund Ran- 
dolph, 301 ; Annapolis Con- 
vention, 292 ; Constitutional 
Convention, 297 ; Virginia 
Convention, 300 ; Secretary of 
State, 428; War of 1812, 470; 
the Monroe doctrine, 490. 

Marion, General Francis, " the 
Swamp Fox," 204. 

Marshall, John, Secretary of 
State, 377; Chief-Justice, 379, 
403 ; the trial of Aaron Burr, 
450. 

Martin, Alexander, Governor of 
North Carolina, 80. 

Martin, Luther, opposition to the 
Constitution, 299; the Chase 
impeachment, 404 ; defense of 
Burr, 451. 

Martineau, Harriet, and James 
Madison, 13. 

Maryland, adoption of the Con- 
stitution, 299. 

Mason, George, Bill of Rights 
and the Virginia Constitution 
of 1776, 142; in the Constitu- 
tional Convention, 299. 

Maury, Jesse, x. 

Maury, Rev. James, tutor to Jef- 
ferson. 13, 50. 

Mazzei, Jefferson's letter to, 346. 

Mecklenburg Resolutions, 158. 

Mills, Elijah, opinion of John 
Randolph of Roanoke, 428. 

Miranda, Hamilton's intrigue 
with, 360, 378, 389, 413. 

Mississippi, importance of the, 
408; John Jay's treaty with 
Spain in regard to the Mis- 
sissippi, 299. 



530 



INDEX 



Money system, Jefferson's part in 
introducing, 238. 

Monroe doctrine, 489. 

Monroe, James, minister to 
France, 352, 376 ; recalled from 
France, 355 ; the Louisiana 
purchase, 411; the Monroe 
doctrine, 489 ; and Lafayette 
508. 

Montgomery, Richard, Canadian 
campaign and death, 187. 

Monticello, 25, 71, 113, 243; 
home life at, 120, 340; hos- 
pitality at, 466; Avedding jour- 
ney to, 89 ; return from France 
to, 275 ; Hessian prisoners at, 
182; Cornwallis's raid, 214, 
233 ; Lafayette's visit to, x, 
509. 

Morris, Gtouverneur, originates 
money system, 238 ; minister 
to France, 352 ; death of Paul 
Jones, 201 ; opinion of Burr 
and JefTerson, 392 ; at Hamil- 
ton's death-bed, 437. 

Moultrie, William, defense of 
Fort Sullivan, 144; the Rut- 
ledge letter, 221; the Genet 
episode, 325. 

Mount Vernon, xi. 

Musgroves' Mills, battle at, 206, 
219. 

Napoleon, plans for development 
of Louisiana, 410. 

Navigation laws, 31, 94. 

Navy, JeflTerson's part in plan 
ning the United States, 253. 

Nelson, Thomas, 142; Governor 
of Virginia, 217. 

New England, influence on Unit- 
ed States history, vii ; attitude 
toward War of 1812, 472; 
secession talk in, 415, 455, 472, 
475. 

New Orleans, battle of, 475. 



Newspapers, modern thirst for, 
33. 

New York, adoption of the Con- 
stitution, 304. 

Nicholas, John, letter to Wash- 
ington, 347. 

Nicholas, Robert C, Virginia 
Committee of Correspondence, 
100. 

Norfolk, destruction of, by the 
British, 141. 

North Carolina, opposition to the 
Stamp Act, 40 ; revolt in, in 
1767-70, 73; adoption of the 
Constitution, 307. 

Northwestern Territory, ordi- 
nance of the, 239. 

Notes on Virginia, Jefferson's, 
235. 

Nullification, Edmund Randolph 
on, 364 ; talk of, in New Eng- 
land, 415, 455, 472, 475. 

Oconostata, or Ontassite, Chero- 
kee chief, 9. 

Ohio Land Company, 150. 

Ontassite, or Oconostata, Chero- 
kee chief, 9. 

Otis, James, opposition to the 
Stamp Act, 41, 44. 

Page, John, Governor of Vir- 
ginia, 87, 185, 217, 461. 

Paine, Thomas, publication of 
"Common Sense," 141, 174; 
Indian Commissioner, 284 ; 
Foreign Secretary, 288; the 
French Revolution, 354; Jef- 
ferson's letter to, 402. 

Parker, Sir Hyde, 119. 

Parker, Sir Peter, defeat at Fort 
Sullivan, 143. 

Parsons case, the, Patrick Hen- 
ry wins the, 47, 50. 

Pearson, Captain, of the Serapis, 
196. 



531 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 



Peggy Stewart, burning of the, 
110. 

Pendleton, Edmund, Virginia 
Committee of Correspondence, 
100; First Continental Con- 
gress, 109 ; revision of the laws 
of Virginia, 180. 

Pennsylvania, tariff act of 1785, 
316. 

Pepys's diary, 52. 

Pickering, Judge, impeached, 404. 

Pickering, Timothy, Secretary of 
State, 357, 377. 

Pinckney, C. C, minister to 
France, 355. 

Pinckney, William, 57. 

Pocahontas, 420. 

Political parties, first, 330. 

Pontiac's War, 37. 

Providence, Paul Jones's ship, 
194. 

Pulaski, Count, 190. 

Randolph, Colonel Peter, 46. 

Randolph, Colonel William, 5, 7. 

Randolph, Dr. William Carey 
Nicholas, great-grandson of 
Jefferson, x. 

Randolph, Edmund, 56, 57, 275; 
Governor of Virginia, 295; 
Annapolis Convention, 292, 
295 ; Constitutional Conven- 
tion, 297 ; Virginia Convention, 
300; contrasted with Madison, 
301 ; trial of Aaron Burr, 451. 

Randolph, Ishani, grandfather of 
Thomas Jefferson, 5. 

Randolph, Jane. See Jane (Ran- 
dolph Jefferson ). 

Randolph, John (father of Ed- 
mund Randolph), 118; home 
life, 293; goes with Dunmore 
to England, 119; death, 120. 

Randolph, John, of Roanoke, 
173 ; character and career, 420 ; 
the Chase impeachment, 404, 



425 ; break with Jefferson, 
427 ; minister to Russia, 427 ; 
the trial of Aaron Burr, 452. 

Randolph, Peyton, 46; Virginia 
Committee of Correspondence, 
100; First Continental Con- 
gress, 109, 126; death, 294. 

Randolph, Thomas Mann, mar- 
ries Martha Jefferson, 341. 

Ranger, Paul Jones's ship, 194. 

Regulators, organized in North 
Carolina, 73. 

Religion, State, in Virginia, 177. 

Republican party, Jefferson's, 
330. 

Revolution, the American, causes 
of, 27. 

Rliode Island, adoption of the 
Constitution, 307. 

Richmond, removal of capital to, 
502. 

Rochambeau, Count, 216. 

Rosewell, home of John Page, 
185. 

Rutledge, Edward, battle of 
Fort Sullivan, 145. 

Rutledge, John, 134, 163, 220. 

Saratoga, battle of, 190. 

Secession, talk of, in New Eng- 
land, 415, 455, 472, 475. 

Sedition laws, 362, 376. 

Serapis, Paul Jones's fight with 
the, 195. 

Shadwell, home of Peter Jeffer- 
son, 5, 120; burned, 70. 

Shays's Rebellion, 291. 

Skelton, Mrs. Martha, married 
to Jefferson, 87. See Jeffer- 
son, Martha. 

Slavery, in colonial Virginia, 4; 
Jefferson's attitude toward, 
65, 160, 181; attitude of Vir- 
ginia toward, 66; beneficent 
results of, 66, 94; compromise 
on, in the Constitution, 298. 



532 



INDEX 



Small, Dr., favorite professor, 
18. 

Smith, Joliu, colonization of Vir- 
ginia, 279. 

Smith, Robert, Secretary of the 
Navy, 429. 

Social equality in colonial Vir- 
ginia, 3. 

Spain, John Jay's treaty with, 
299. 

Stamp Act Congress of 1765, 123. 

Stamp Act, passage of the, 39 ; 
opposition to, 73, 134; re- 
pealed, 60, 70; effect of repeal 
in the colonies, 70. 

Steuben, Baron, 190. 

Stewart, Anthony, burning of the 
Peggy Stewart, 110. 

Summary View of the Rights 
of British America, prepared 
by Jefferson, 107. 

Sumpter, General Thomas, " the 
Game-Cock," 204. 



Talleyrand, X. Y. Z. despatches, 
356, 358. 

Tariff, beginning of the, 315; 
Jefferson's views on the, 495. 

Tarleton, Sir Bannastre, in the 
South, 205, 210; battle of Cow- 
pens, 212; raid on Virginia, 
233. 

Tazewell Hall, home of the Ran- 
dolphs, 293. 

Tea-Party, Boston, 104, 147. 

Tea tax, the, 60, 65, 70. 

Tennessee, beginnings of, 10. 

Tithes in Virginia, work of Jef- 
ferson to abolish, 166. 

Tories, as a political party, 330. 

Trenton, battle of, 190. 

Tripoli, negotiations with, 247 ; 
war with, 418, 479. 

Tryon, William, Governor of 
North Carolina, 73. 



University of Virginia, 114, 486. 

Valley Forge, Washington at, 
189. 

Vergennes, Charles Gravier, 
French aid to colonists, 287. 

Vincennes, George Rogers Clark 
at, 228; retaken by the Brit- 
ish, 229. 

Virginia, first settlement of, 279; 
resolutions against the Stamp 
Act, 40; resolutions of 1765, 
effect of, 60; adoption of the 
Constitution, 299. 

Virginia courts, the, 280. 

Waddell, Hugh, 83. 

War of 1812, 401, 445, 470. 

Washington, George, xi, 129 
character, 148; bravery, 191 
education, 2; marriage, 153 
as a soldier, 150; land sur- 
veyor. 150; in Virginia House 
of Burgesses, 63 ; service with 
Braddock, 9, 154 ; First Conti- 
nental Congress, 109; Henry's 
march on Williamsburg, 84 
124; made Commander-in 
chief, 147, 187; at YorktowTi 
215; lays do\vn commission 
238 ; Annapolis Convention 
292, 295; Constitutional Con 
vention, 297; President, 307 
430; Cabinet officers, 310, 332 
negotiations with Morocco 
251; the Genet episode, 326 
feeling toward the French 
Revolution, 265 ; letter in re- 
gard to Jefferson's resignation, 
334 ; last years of his adminis- 
tration, 340; Mazzei and Nich- 
olas letters, 346 ; threatened 
war with France, 356; death, 
348. 

Washington, William, at Cow- 
pens, 213. 



533 



LIFE AND TIMES OF JEFFERSON 



Washington city, 318; British 
raid on, 476. 

Watson, Thomas, 135. 

Wayles, John, father of Jeffer- 
son's wife, 88; death, 91. 

Wayne, Anthony, takes Stony 
Point, 190. 

Webster, Daniel, on the North- 
western Territories, 409. 

Wesley, John, on American Inde- 
pendence, 131. 

West Point, Military Academy 
at, 403. 

Whigs, as a political party, 330. 

Whisky Rebellion, 292, 345. 

Whitney, Eli, inventor of cotton- 
gin, 338. 

Wilkinson, James, the Burr con- 
spiracy, 448. 

William and Mary College, 14. 

Williamsburg, social life in, in 
colonial days, 14. 

Wirt, William, 57; trial of 



Aaron Burr, 452 ; War of 
1812, 476. 

Wolcott, Oliver, in Adams's Cab- 
inet, 377 ; the Jefferson-Burr 
contest, 385. 

Woodford, Colonel, skirmish near 
Norfolk, 140. 

Wright, Sir James, Governor of 
Georgia, 133; returns to Eng- 
land, 139. 

Wyoming Valley, dispute over 
the, 291. 

Wythe, George, Jefferson's pre- 
ceptor in the law, 18, 20; the 
Virginia Resolutions, 49 ; re- 
vision of the Virginia laws, 
180. 

X. Y. Z. despatches, 356. 

Yazoo frauds, the, 425. 
Yorktown, founded, 1 ; siege of, 
212. 



(1) 



534 



Y f' U^ / /&-^ J ^- •^^ 



